Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes. - Sir J.M. Barrie

Courage and encouragement have the same root corresponding to the French coeur, meaning heart. To encourage someone is to give them heart, to strengthen their courage. Encouragement or praise is one of the most useful attitudes for transforming life. It can be used at any time of the day or night. It is especially useful when our lives may not seem to be progressing as well as they could! The spoken word is like a seed. It must grow!

If you believe a thing strongly enough, it can come to pass in your life!
Those were the words which encouraged Jesse Owens to become an Olympic champion

Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of the colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.

Each time a person stands up for an idea, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, (s)he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.
- Robert F. Kennedy