But the man whose blood is poor is not a coward for all that, for what produces cowardice is the act of giving up or giving way; and a temperament is not an action. A coward is defined by the deed that he has done. What people feel obscurely, and with horror, is that the coward as we present him is guilty of being a coward. What people would prefer would be to be born either a coward or a hero.
 Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism (1946). copy citation

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Author Jean-Paul Sartre
Source Existentialism Is a Humanism
Topic cowardice action
Date 1946
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Philip Mairet
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