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Cowardice quotes

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“No arguments will give courage to the coward.” Aesop, Aesop's Fables

“The man who grounds his action on another's cowardice, is essentially a coward himself.” George MacDonald, Lilith

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

“To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.” Confucius, Analects

“There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.” Mark Twain, Following the Equator

“The suffering may be moral or physical; and in my opinion it is just as absurd to call a man a coward who destroys himself, as to call a man a coward who dies of a malignant fever.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“So few want to be rebels any more. And out of those few, most, like myself, scare easily.” Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.” Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

“My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact.” Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

“But when you disarm them, you at once offend them by showing that you distrust them, either for cowardice or for want of loyalty, and either of these opinions breeds hatred against you.” Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

“It was as though, so long as the deceit ran along quiet and monotonous, all of us let ourselves be deceived, abetting it unawares or maybe through cowardice, since all people are cowards and naturally prefer any kind of treachery because it has a...” William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying

“It may therefore be judged indecent in me to come forward on this occasion, but when I see a fellow creature about to perish through the cowardice of her pretended friends, I wish to be allowed to speak, that I may say what I know of her character.” Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“The bravest people are the ones who don't mind looking like cowards.” T. H. White, The Once and Future King

“I'm very brave generally . . . only to-day I happen to have a headache.” Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass

“People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves.” Albert Camus, The Fall

“this cult of the future is not only a weakness but a cowardice of the age.” G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World

“in my cowardice I became at once a man, and did what all we grown men do when face to face with suffering and injustice; I preferred not to see them” Marcel Proust, Swann's Way

“Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, Basil. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all.” Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“They say cowardice is infectious; but then argument is, on the other hand, a great emboldener; and so when each had said his say, my mother made them a speech.” Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

“For, all the three years, he had carefully avoided her in consequence of that natural cowardice that characterises the stronger sex.” Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary

“Coward dogs most spend their mouths when what they seem to threaten runs far before them.” William Shakespeare, Henry V

“I suppose that we women are such cowards that we think a man will save us from fears, and we marry him.” Bram Stoker, Dracula

“That which in mean men we entitle patience is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.” William Shakespeare, Richard II

“Here all suspicion needs must be abandoned, All cowardice must needs be here extinct.” Dante Alighieri, Divine Comedy

“with how many things are we upon the brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquiries.” Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“Keep your eyes wide open. Only a coward closes his eyes. Closing your eyes and plugging up your ears won't make time stand still.” Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“Be anything but a coward, a pretender, an emotional crook, a whore: I'd rather have cancer than a dishonest heart.” Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's

“Maybe a specialist is only a coward, afraid to look out of his little cage.” John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Related topics

bravery right betrayal wrong courage fear suffering argument death women good hate action friendship men mind slavery honesty marriage future

Related authors

William Shakespeare (3)
Mary Shelley (2)
George MacDonald (1)
Dante Alighieri (1)
Oscar Wilde (1)
Confucius (1)
Mark Twain (1)
Aesop (1)
John Steinbeck (1)
Ray Bradbury (1)
Haruki Murakami (1)
Albert Camus (1)
Charles Dickens (1)
Frederick Douglass (1)
Niccolò Machiavelli (1)
Lewis Carroll (1)
G. K. Chesterton (1)
Bram Stoker (1)
Marcel Proust (1)
William Faulkner (1)

Related sources

Divine Comedy (1)
Frankenstein (2)
The Sorrows of Young Werther (1)
East of Eden (1)
Julius Caesar (1)
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1)
Aesop's Fables (1)
Great Expectations (1)
Fahrenheit 451 (1)
The Fall (1)
Following the Equator (1)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1)
As I Lay Dying (1)
Through the Looking-Glass (1)
Analects (1)
The Prince (1)
Kafka on the Shore (1)
What's Wrong with the World (1)
Dracula (1)
Lilith (1)