Most of us think courage means charging ahead despite fear, but Plato suggests something subtler—that the courageous person has already developed discernment about which threats warrant their trembling. A surgeon's steady hand during a risky operation isn't the absence of fear about making mistakes; it's the clarity that certain risks are manageable and therefore not worth the mental paralysis that stops ordinary people from trying. This reframes courage as an act of judgment, almost intellectual, rather than mere emotional fortitude. It means that becoming brave is less about steeling yourself and more about learning to distinguish between the perils that should shake us and the ones that are simply ghosts.