Courage is not the absence of fear. It is action despite fear. Aristotle called it the first virtue because it makes all other virtues possible — you cannot be honest, just, or compassionate if you lack the nerve to act when it costs you something.
Physical courage — facing bodily danger — is the form most easily recognized. But moral courage — speaking truth when it is unwelcome, standing by principle when the crowd turns — is rarer and often harder. A soldier may face bullets once; a whistleblower faces consequences every day.
Courage also has a ceiling. Recklessness is not courage. Aristotle placed courage as the mean between cowardice and foolhardiness. The courageous person is afraid and acts anyway, but does not seek danger for its own sake.
Every culture teaches courage to its young, because every culture knows that without it, the other values on the wall are decorations.