On Daring

q. 45. 3

On the part of the appetitive movement which follows apprehension, hope that leads to daring is roused by those things that make us reckon victory as possible. Such things regard either our own power, as bodily strength, experience of dangers, abundance of wealth, and the like; or they regard the powers of others, such as having a great number of friends or any other means of help, especially if a man trust in the Divine assistance: wherefore "those are more daring, with whom it is well in regard to godlike things," as the Philosopher says (Rhet. ii, 5). Fear is banished, in this way, by the removal of threatening causes of fear; for instance, by the fact that a man has not enemies, through having harmed nobody, so that he is not aware of any imminent danger; since those especially appear to be threatened by danger, who have harmed others.

"Daring" is interesting from the point of view of anxiety - when you are being pressed, it does take an act of daring to defy it -I would say "anger" although "anger" doesn't precisely work here, because the point of anxiety is that it doesn't really have one particular object, but rather it is in the general experience of difficulties, of being hemmed in - the nature of anxiety lies in a general powerlessness, and anger would be a too-dear use of one's powers - daring is something that is more restrained, more collected
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On the part of the bodily transmutation, daring is caused through the incitement of hope and the banishment of fear, by those things which raise the temperature about the heart. Wherefore the Philosopher says (De Part. Animal. iii, 4) that "those whose heart is small in size, are more daring; while animals whose heart is large are timid; because the natural heat is unable to give the same degree of temperature to a large as to a small heart; just as a fire does not heat a large house as well as it does a small house." He says also (De Problem. xxvii, 4), that "those whose lungs contain much blood, are more daring, through the heat in the heart that results therefrom." He says also in the same passage that "lovers of wine are more daring, on account of the heat of the wine": hence it has been said above (Question 40, Article 6) that drunkenness conduces to hope, since the heat in the heart banishes fear and raises hope, by reason of the dilatation and enlargement of the heart.
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The difference between anger and daring would be that anger is a combination of sorrow and hope, whereas daring, I think, would be considerably more hopeful than sorrowful.
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45.4 - interesting
On the other hand, reason discusses all the difficulties of a situation. Consequently men of fortitude who face danger according to the judgment of reason, at first seem slack, because they face the danger not from passion but with due deliberation. Yet when they are in the midst of danger, they experience nothing unforeseen, but sometimes the difficulty turns out to be less than they anticipated; wherefore they are more persevering. Moreover, it may be because they face the danger on account of the good of virtue which is the abiding object of their will, however great the danger may prove: whereas men of daring face the danger on account of a mere thought giving rise to hope and banishing fear, as stated above (Article 3).
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obj and answer 3 of the same article:
Objection 3. Further, anger is provoked by the infliction of wounds. But anger causes daring; for the Philosopher says (Rhet. ii, 5) that "anger makes man bold." Therefore when man is in the midst of danger and when he is being beaten, then is he most daring.
Reply to Objection 3. Hurt does not give rise to anger unless there be some kind of hope, as we shall see later on (46, 1). Consequently if the danger be so great as to banish all hope of victory, anger does not ensue. It is true, however, that if anger does ensue, there will be greater daring.

Yes, from this story, from hurt to anger to daring, it does seem that daring has less of the "sorrow" than anger would - anger is concerned more with vengeance and hope of vengeance, daring is concerned more with victory - not just punishing the cause of hurt but actually overcoming it. You notice it in these great revenge stories - when the whole thing is motivated by anger - when a person puts his whole life at the service of vengeance - I'm trying to think of an example -I'm not sure if Monte Christo would work - I'm trying to think of Shakespearean things but my mind is drawing a blank - same with greeks. At any rate. It's odd because you see someone who builds up his life successfully like Monte Christo and it means nothing without revenge - of course it had a lot to do with "honor" and such things which is more complex than it is today, 'restorative jsutice' is much more hot than 'punitive justice'. At any rate, he had become a successful person - had name and rank and wealth.. (was Ben Hur a revenge story? trying to remember. Too many days without literature.) and although he had achieved victory he wanted punishment. Okay - recalled example - Joseph and his brothers. He had no anger but he had victory and he simply shared his good fortune.

anyway that was a lot of fluff to make a rather refined point.

If you've got the person at "daring" (presupposing that the health of the appetite of the person is your only concern, or alternatively, the only real problem, because if there is a real problem, they're going to need more than passions to really help them, because being daring and starting a revolution might not be the most feasible thing in some circumstances). Of course you'll need prudence even when the problems really are mostly interior. But at any rate the "daring" thing shows that the sorrow has already been tremendously lightened, either through the hope of victory or at least through the investment of oneself in the hope of victory, through a kind of "devotion" you might say.

And in this context his alignment of "those who rely on Divine assistance" with greater likelihood/proportions of daring is most interesting. I take back the connections I was insinuating. It's not going to be the passion of daring that characterizes devotion - its not going to be any passion alone, but certainly "passions" involved - but "virtues" and their actions will be prominent -fortitude and such like things - but we cannot underestimate the necessity of anxietas sedatur by the Divine.