People tell me or act like I did something brace or stupid. If I did something stupid, people would either laugh at me or scream at me, etc. If I did something brave, people might cheer or clap. If there were no people, then I would know by my common sense. If I cut my finger off, I would know it was stupid but if I rescued a person in a burning house, that would be brave.

If you survive and everyone claps then it was brave. If you die, or your mum tells you off, then it was stupid. To paraphrase a quote, a brave person is one who got too scared to run away and then somehow survived.

I think if you are helping another person who is in danger, then it is always brave, because it can't possibly be stupid to help another person in distress. When someone else is not in danger, such as in extreme sports, anything from the really dangerous like BASE jumping, to the not really dangerous like skateboarding and roller blading, I think the stupidity level is inversely proportional to the amount of intelligent thought put into minimising the dangers you are getting involved in. Zero thought- Stupid. Lots of thought- Brave. However, there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity, just as there is a fine line between genius and insanity.

Think about this- A soldier in a trench in WW2, he gets up and runs past the front lines to enemy ground. Is He brave or stupid? There is a very fine line here. But I think that is you have all the information and can make a sound decision then the action is brave even if a lesser man may call it stupid.

when you scream like a girl you're brave! when you past level 1 in ghostrecon you're a brave person! when you eat trix you're a little whussy and when youre typing in answer.com youre a brave person to ask this question even though it is lame so you got guts! congrats you past the lame question test!! bravo!!!

Acting in spite of your fear is brave. Acting without fear is stupid.

I had an interesting experience back in 1991. I'm not sure to this day whether it was brave or stupid. You decide. I was working for the Social Security Administration in an inner city office in Boston. The office was in Dudley Square, which was widely considered to be the worst area of Roxbury. Roxbury was considered to be the worst section of Boston. The SSA rented office space in a one-story brick building, that was owned by a dentist. Beside the building was a fenced in parking lot for the employees. One day, as I was leaving the building at the end of the day, I heard shouting coming from the side street on the other side of the parking lot. When I investigated, I saw the dentist standing at the chain-link fence and shouting at two men on the sidewalk. One of the men was flat on his back fending off an assault from the other. The attacker was covered with blood and had a "crazy look" in his eye. He was leaning all of his weight on a sharp stick that was inches from the other man's throat. The man on the bottom was holding the stick with both hands and barely keeping it away from his throat. I could tell that if something wasn't done quickly, the man on the bottom would be killed by the attacker. When the dentist saw me, he immediately started yelling to the guys "You're in trouble now...the Social Security man is here!" (In his thick Haitian accent - the only humorous thing about this story.) Quickly assessing the situation, I ran around the fence and pushed the attacker. Since all his weight was on the stick, he lost his balance and fell to the ground. I grabbed the stick from him and yelled at the dentist to call for assistance. About that time, the police arrived and handcuffed the man. The man on the ground told the police that I had saved his life. He was an elderly man (80 something) who had been attacked by a man in the street whose intent was robbery. He responded by hitting the attacker over the head with his cane, which broke in half. The attacker grabbed half of the cane and tried to stab him with it - which is where I came into the story. I later learned that the attacker was under the influence of a variety of controlled substances. The police told me That they had arrested him numerous times on drug charges and petty theft. They commended me on my bravery, and thanked me for getting involved. They said that most people in that area would have gone the other way if they saw that situation. When I arrived at work the next morning, I was called into the manager's office. He told me that he had heard all about the incident. Then he proceeded to give me a written warning for getting involved in the incident. As he explained, the Standard Operating Manual System expressly forbids any employee of the SSA from getting involved in any community incidents that might endanger said employee. He told me that was an incredibly stupid thing I did, and if it happened again, it was grounds for discharge. That was one of the incidents that led up to my not staying with the SSA.

Sometimes we just can't know while we are doing it - we just have to do the right thing. Sometimes that is costly and sometimes it is brave. But if we are just trying to be brave to impress someone or ourselves, that is most likely stupid.

In my experience, that determination is always made in hindsight.

Sometimes it doesnt matter. If it is something that you know that you have to do then you cant think about that.

If you die... they call you brave. If you live... they call you stupid?

Sometimes you can't tell, but continuing anyways is brave. Doing what you think is right even if it may be stupid is brave. But if you act irrationally, it's probably a stupid act

You would know because being brave and being stupid are totally different things. You should think before you act. Being stupid is kind of obvious if you are being stupid. If your being brave, you would be doing something good and not stupid.

curiosity killed the cat

Perhaps age. I can remember once down in New Mexico, it was a very windy day. Me and a couple other guys got this wild idea. We walked over to the edge of a very large cliff, stretched our arms out and one leg straight back. Then looking straight forward, on one foot, we leaned out over the cliff, held from falling by the powerful wind coming toward us. It was very cool at the time. It was like flying. I thought we were so brave back then. Now I think we were stupid.

Ask yourself : Does this benefit anyone besides myself? If it does then its brave. If it doesn't then its stupid.