Quotations about:
    coward


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The fear of being laughed at makes cowards of us all.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 10 (1963)
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Added on 20-Dec-23 | Last updated 20-Dec-23
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Even cowards can endure hardship; only the brave can endure suspense.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 3 (1963)
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Added on 11-May-23 | Last updated 11-May-23
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CAESAR: Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.

Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Julius Caesar, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 34ff (2.2.34-39) (1599)
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The initial phrase has seemingly morphed in the retelling, though still being cited to Shakespeare: "A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once." This is the form most often seen, but is not Shakespeare.

In A Farewell to Arms (1929), Hemingway gives another paraphrase: "The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one." This, too, sometimes gets modified to make it scan better, e.g., "A coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave dies only once."
 
Added on 24-Nov-21 | Last updated 29-Jan-24
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HENRY: Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man’s company,
That fears his fellowship to die with us.

Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry V, Act 4, sc. 3, l. 37ff (4.3.37-42) (1599)
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Added on 7-May-18 | Last updated 29-Jan-24
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A cowardly leader is the most dangerous of men.

Stephen King (b. 1947) American author
Under the Dome (2009)
 
Added on 12-Oct-16 | Last updated 12-Oct-16
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The brave only know how to forgive; it is the most refined and generous pitch of virtue human nature can arrive at. Cowards have done good and kind actions, cowards have even fought, nay some times, even conquered; but a coward never forgave. It is not in his nature; the power of doing it flows only from a strength and greatness of soul, conscious of its own force and security, and above the little temptations of resenting every fruitless attempt to interrupt its happiness.

Laurence Sterne (1713-1786) Anglo-Irish novelist, Anglican clergyman
Sermon 12, “Joseph’s History Considered”
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Added on 15-Jan-16 | Last updated 15-Jan-16
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A brave man is sometimes a desperado: a bully is always a coward.

Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796-1865) Canadian politician, judge, humorist
Sam Slick’s Wise Saws and Modern Instances, Vol. 1 (1853)
 
Added on 4-Nov-15 | Last updated 4-Nov-15
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Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
In Harijan (7 Apr 1946)
 
Added on 3-Jul-14 | Last updated 3-Jul-14
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God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series (1841)
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Preliminary work, including this phrase, is found in Emerson's journal (13 Jan 1833).
 
Added on 11-Aug-09 | Last updated 22-Mar-22
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RICHARD: Conscience is but a word that cowards use,
Devised at first to keep the strong in awe:
Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law.

Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Richard III, Act 5, sc. 3, l. 327ff (5.3.327-329) (1592)
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Added on 29-May-09 | Last updated 8-Feb-24
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Even cowards gain courage from companionship.

Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Iliad [Ἰλιάς], Book 13, l. 235 (13.235) (c. 750 BC) [tr. Butler (1898)]
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Poseidon, appearing as Thoas, talking with Idomeneus. Alt. trans.:
  • "We find, / That virtue co-augmented thrives in men of little mind." [tr. Chapman (1611), ll. 218-19]
  • "Not vain the weakest, if their force unite." [tr. Pope (1715-20)]
  • "Union much / Emboldens even the weakest." [tr. Cowper (1791), ll. 292-93]
  • "For useful is the valour of men, even the very pusillanimous, if combined." [tr. Buckley (1860)]
  • "E’en meaner men, united, courage gain." [tr. Derby (1864)]
  • "Ay, and very cowards get courage from company." [tr. Leaf/Lang/Myers (1891)]
  • "Prowess comes from fellowship even of right sorry folk." [tr. Murray (1924)]
  • "Even the poorest fighters turn into brave men when they stand side by side." [tr. Rieu (1950)]
  • "The worst cowards, banded together, have their power." [tr. Fagles (1990), l. 281]
 
Added on 8-Jan-09 | Last updated 1-Dec-21
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Fortune is not on the side of the faint-hearted.

Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Phaedra, fragment 842

Also "Fortune never helps the fainthearted" [Fragments, l. 666]
 
Added on 23-Jun-08 | Last updated 17-Aug-16
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To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) American author and poet.
“Protest,” Poems of Problems (1914)

Mistakenly attributed to Abraham Lincoln by Douglas MacArthur in a 1950 speech, and frequently since then.
 
Added on 21-Nov-05 | Last updated 25-May-16
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