Quote of the Day by Hugh Jackman: 'I’ve always felt that if you back down from a fear…'

Quote of the day by Hugh Jackman: Australian actor Hugh Michael Jackman is globally recognised for his roles in major films. He is extremely popular for his superhero, period, and romance characters. Born in Sydney, New South Wales, he is best known for his role as Wolverine in the X-Men film series. Besides his popularity as a superhero, Hugh Jackman has also earned praise in other genres, including romantic comedy and action horror.

The world-renowned actor was lauded for his lead roles in the romantic-comedy fantasy Kate & Leopold (2001), the action-horror film Van Helsing (2004), the dramas The Prestige and The Fountain (2006), the epic historical romantic drama Australia (2008), the film version of Les Misérables (2012), and the thriller Prisoners (2013).

As far as awards are concerned, he earned recognition for his work in Les Misérables, for which he won his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy in 2013.


In Broadway theatre, Jackman won a Tony Award for his role in The Boy from Oz. A four-time host of the Tony Awards himself, he won an Emmy Award for one of these appearances. Jackman also hosted the 81st Academy Awards on 22 February 2009. Jackman is the youngest of five children. His parents, both English, moved to Australia shortly before his birth. He also has Greek (from a great-grandfather) and Scottish (from a grandmother) ancestry.

Today’s quote of the day – “I've always felt that if you back down from a fear, the ghost of that fear never goes away. It diminishes people. So I've always said yes to the thing I'm most scared about. The fear of letting myself down -- of saying no to something that I was afraid of and then sitting in my room later going, 'I wish I'd had the guts to say this or that' -- that galvanises me more than anything.”

Meaning of the quote

Avoiding fear is not the answer, and it doesn’t make it disappear. When a person backs away from something that scares them, that fear doesn’t simply go, and it stays, lingering in the mind like a ghost. In the long run, letting fear take control can chip away at your potential, quietly undermining your confidence and sense of self.

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For Hugh Jackman, retreating from fear is never the answer. He deliberately chooses to confront the things that frighten him most, not because he isn’t afraid, but because the thought of later sitting alone, wishing he had the guts to say yes, drives him far more than fear itself. That fear of letting himself down fuels his decisions and pushes him forward.