All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid.

The quotation frames courage not as the absence of fear but as the decision to act despite it. By pairing “confidence in yourself” with the universality of fear (“no living thing…is not afraid”), it rejects the romantic ideal of the fearless hero and instead defines bravery as a moral and practical choice made under pressure. The emphasis on self-trust suggests that what carries a person through danger is not invulnerability but an inner steadiness—belief in one’s capacity to endure, decide, and do what is necessary. This aligns with a common theme in Baum’s fiction: characters discover that the qualities they seek (brains, heart, courage) are often already present and proven through action.