Sir Philip Sydney (1554-1586) on cowards:
"Commonly they use their feet for defence, whose tongue is their weapon."
BRAGGARTS
Who knows himself a braggart,
Let him fear this; for it will come to pass
That every braggart shall be found an ass.
- William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well
(Parolles at IV, iii)
THE BRAVE
Cowards are cruel, but the brave
Love mercy, and delight to save.
- John Gay, Fables (pt. I, fable 1)
Even cowards can endure hardship; only the brave can endure suspense.
- Mignon McLaughlin
COURAGE
The courage that grows from constitution very often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; and when it is only a kind of instinct in the soul, it breaks out on all occasions, without judgment or discretion.
- Joseph Addison
COWARDS AND COWARDICE
But look for ruin when a coward wins;
For fear and cruelty are ever twins.
- Aleyn
For cowards the road of desertion should be left open. They will carry over to the enemy nothing but their fears.
- Christian Nestell Bovee
A coward's fear can make a coward valiant.
- Owen Felltham (Feltham)
When the passengers gallop by as if fear made them speedy, the cur follows them with an open mouth; let them walk by in confidant neglect, and the dog will not stir at all; it is a weakness that every creature takes advantage of.
- J. Beaumont
The coward wretch whose hand and heart
Can bear to torture aught below,
Is ever first to quail and start
From slightest pain or equal foe.
- Eliza Cook
The coward never on himself relies,
But to an equal for assistance flies.
- George Crabbe, Tale III-The Gentleman Farmer (l. 84)
A coward is the kindest animal;
'Tis the most forgiving creature in a fight.
- John Dryden
The coward only threatens when he is safe.
[Ger., Der Fiege droht nur, wo er sicher ist.]
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Torquato Tasso
(II, 3, 207)
It is a law of nature that fainthearted men should be the fruit of luxurious countries, for we never find that the same soil produces delicacies and heroes.
- Herodotus
It is the coward who fawns upon those above him. It is the coward that is insolent whenever he dares be so.
- Junius
Strange that cowards cannot see that their greatest safety lies in dauntless courage.
- Johann Kaspar Lavater
A coward boasting of his courage may deceive strangers, but he is a laughing-stock to those who know him.
[Lat., Virtutis expers verbis jactans gloriam
Ignotos fallit, notis est derisui.]
- Phaedrus (Thrace of Macedonia), Fables (I, 11, 1)
You are like the eels of Melun; you cry out before you are skinned.
[Fr., Vous semblez les anguilles de Melun; vous criez devant qu'on vous esorche.]
- Francois Rabelais, Gargantua
A cowardly cur barks more fiercely than it bites.
[Lat., Canis timidus vehementius latrat quam mordet.]
- Quintus Curtius Rufus (Curtis Rufus Quintus),
De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni (VII, 4, 13)
Thou slave, thou wretch, thou coward!
Thou little valiant, great in villainy!
Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!
Thou Fortune's champion, that dost never fight
But where her humorous ladyship is by
To teach thee safety.
- William Shakespeare
E'en a crow o' th' same nest; not altogether so great as the first in goodness, but greater a great deal in evil. He excels his brother for a coward, yet his brother is reputed one of the best that is. In a retreat he outruns any lackey; marry, in coming on he has the cramp.
- William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well
(Parolles at IV, iii)
You souls of geese,
That bear the shapes of men, how have you run
From slaves that apes would men!
- William Shakespeare, Coriolanus (Marcius at I, iv)
So cowards fight when they can fly no further;
So doves do peck the falcon's piercing talons;
So desperate thieves, all hopeless of their lives,
Breathe out invectives 'gainst the officers.
- William Shakespeare, King Henry the Sixth, Part III
(Clifford at I, iv)
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 searched, have livers white as milk!
- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
(Bassanio at III, ii)
A coward, a most devout coward; religious in it.
- William Shakespeare,
Twelfth Night, or, What You Will
(Fabian at III, iv)
Commonly they use their feet for defence, whose tongue is their weapon.
- Sir Philip Sidney (Sydney)
A great deal of talent is lost in the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves a number of obscure men, who have only remained in obscurity because their timidity has prevented them from making a first effort.
- Sydney Smith
Cruel people are ever cowards in emergency.
- Jonathan Swift
The coward calls himself cautious, the miser thrifty.
[Lat., Timidus se vocat cautum, parcum sordidus.]
- Syrus (Publilius Syrus), Maxims
Every recreant who proved his timidity in the hour of danger, was afterwards boldest in words and tongue.
[Lat., Ignavissimus quisque, et ut res docuit, in periculo non ausurus, nimis verbis et lingua feroces.]
- Tacitus (Caius Cornelius Tacitus), Annales (IV, 62)
Some are brave men one day and cowards another, as great captains have often told me, from their own experience and observation.
- Sir William Temple
DARING
The fact is, that to do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.
Sydney Smith
FEAR
Fear is my vassal, when I frown he flies;
A hundred times in life a coward dies.
- John Marston
LYING
Lie not, neither to thyself, nor man, nor God. Let mouth and heart be one; beat and speak together, and make both felt in action. It is for cowards to lie.
- George Herbert
Men lie, who lack courage to tell truth--the cowards!
- Joaquin Miller (pseudonym of Cincinnatus Hiner Miller),
STRATEGY FOR VICTORY
Dangers are light, if they seem light; and more dangers have deceived men than forced them.
- Francis Bacon
SUICIDE
To die, and thus avoid poverty or love, or anything painful, is not the part of a brave man, but rather of a coward; for it is cowardice to avoid trouble, and the suicide does not undergo death because it is honorable, but in order to avoid evil.
- Aristotle
TRUTHFULNESS
By the establishment of truthfulness the Yogi gets the power of attaining for himself and others the fruits of work without the works
- Patanjali.
When this power of truth will be established with you, then even in dream you will never tell an untruth. You will be true in thought, word, and deed. Whatever you say will be truth. You may say to a man, "Be blessed," and that man will be blessed. If a man is diseased, and you say to him, "Be thou cured," he will be cured immediately.
- Vivekananda
Twelve years of absolute truthfulness in thought, word, and deed gives a man what he wills.
- Vivekananda
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