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

[POMPEE: Le lâche fuit en vain; la mort vole à sa suite:
C’est en la défiant que le brave l’évite.]

Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
Le Triumvirat [The Triumvirate], Act 4, sc. 7 (1763)
    (Source)

Sometimes given "... for the coward to flee ..." See also Shakespeare (1599).

(Source (French))