COWARDICE QUOTES II

quotations about cowardice

He that fights and runs away, may live to fight another day.

ENGLISH PROVERB


What a man dares to do, he should dare to confess--unless he is a coward.

RAFAEL SABATINI

Scaramouche


How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

The Merchant of Venice


It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half of the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.

HERODOTUS

The Histories


Base and crafty cowards are like the arrow that flieth in the dark.

FRANCIS BACON

"Of Revenge,", Essays


You've revised history to keep conscience at bay;
In your bunker of pragmatism--your cowardice clear

CRUX

"Not See", Cakewalk


Cowardice rightly understood begins with selfishness and ends with shame.

JOSE RIZAL

Touch Me Not


A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide.

MICKEY MANTLE

attributed, Living Thoughts: Inspiration, Insight, and Wisdom from Sources Throughout the Ages


Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning; but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he's sure of losing.

GEORGE ELIOT

Janet's Repentance


It is vain for the coward to fly; death follows close behind; it is by defying it that the brave escape.

VOLTAIRE

attributed, Day's Collacon


A cowardly cur barks more fiercely than it bites.

QUINTUS CURTIUS RUFUS

De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni


Patience is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Richard II


I believe there is no other difference between those who are called courageous and those who are branded craven than that the second are fearful before the danger and the first after it. No one can be much frightened, certainly, during a period of great and immanent peril -- the mind is too much concentrated on the thing itself, and on the actions necessary to meet or avoid it. The coward is a coward, then, because he has brought his fear with him; persons we think cowardly will sometimes amaze us by their bravery, if they have had no forewarning of their danger.

GENE WOLFE

The Claw of the Conciliator


Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and perceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and last some crisis shows what we have become.

CANON WESTCOTT

attributed, The Boy's Own Annual, 1897


A coward's courage is in his tongue.

BURKE

attributed, Day's Collacon


I'm a coward. Only way I can do something this frightening is to tell myself I'm not doing it!

DIANA WYNNE JONES

Howl's Moving Castle


The coward fears the prick of Fate, not he who dares all, becoming himself the dreaded one.

ELISE PUMPELLY CABOT

"Arizona"


When all the blandishments of life are gone,
The coward sneaks to death, the brave live on.

GEORGE SEWELL

The Suicide


I think before I act--and then think again. I am not entirely a coward, but I do not lose myself in action as you do.

JOHN CHRISTOPHER

Beyond the Burning Lands


A coward isn't someone who is afraid, or even who backs down sometimes; a coward is someone who won't defend what he or she believes in, or what he or she holds precious. So courage and integrity go hand in hand.

SARA DIMERMAN

Character Is the Key