APAD: Screw your courage to the sticking place

Meaning: Be firm and resolute.

Background:  This line is from Shakespeare's Macbeth, 1605:

 

     Lady Macbeth:

     `We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we'll not fail.'

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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If I were Macbeth, I'd take a long cruise vacation or maybe even retire right

there after hearing the witches. "Look," I'd tell the lady. "Now that I've got

the mandate, I don't need to lift a finger. Didn't ask for it. Nay. It's fate.

What courage? Big hassle. Not worth it. Off Duncan? You outta ya mind?" and if

she was still there, "Read books and chill, enjoy physical labor, and memento

mori. 'Ease your cravings and harden your bones.' Give life a chance."