The late Charles Peguy said that the true adventurers of the twentieth century are the fathers of families. Courage should not be confused with recklessness or fool hardiness. Nor should it be confused with fearlessness. To be courageous is to have the strength to overcome fear. There is no virtue in doing what comes naturally, without effort.
Courage involves conquering fear.
It involves a respect for hardships and dangers together with an unflinching will to endure them for a good cause. Drunks who rush thoughtlessly into danger are not courageous. Many great thinkers regard the courageous man as one who succeeds in avoiding the equally wrong extremes of foolhardiness and cowardice. Aristotle points our that courage consists in having the right amount of fear, neither too much nor too little. It calls for a sound judgment about risks or perils, or, as Epictetus says, a combination of confidence and caution.