Unique Existence

It takes a great deal of courage to live according to your principles

 and the values that are behind them,

and to tolerate the pain, the isolation, 

and the anxiety of being different from other people,

of being creative, of living a unique existence; the courage to face death with equanimity.

To stand by one's beliefs is part of that, too.

It takes courage to stand behind one's beliefs

when they run counter to a society or a group or pressures from other people.