Bravery

“ And now, in these sorrowful days of suffering and bloody outrages which fall upon the grey head of the ancient nation, the creator of Gods and religion,—I think again of the boy, for in him I see the symbol of true manly bravery,—not the pliant patience of slaves, who live by uncertain hopes, but the courage of the strong who are certain of their victory. ”

“ You are brave, in a sense, but the bravery that attacks weakness, and shouts over its own triumphs, is a spurious bravery. A fine Sir Galahad or Sir Philip Sidney you would make! There is as crying need of brave and courtly men now as in the days of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, but where are they? ”

“ I have often seen men of bravery tremble at the roaring of a lion, caged up and strongly chained in a menagerie. I have often seen and heard a brave man whistle as he passed through a church-yard; a brave man will shudder and quail at the very sight of his own shadow. A bully, a cut throat, a highway robber, a Jesuit, or a traitor, may be brave ”

“ Lastly, Courage and bravery are words of a great sound, and seem to signify an heroic spirit; but yet humility, which seems to be the lowest, meanest part of devotion, is a more certain argument of a noble mind.
For humility contends with greater enemies, is more constantly engaged, more violently assaulted, suffers more, and requires greater courage to support itself, than any instances of worldly bravery. ”

“ But I must confess that my war experience has destroyed some youthful illusions as to the romantic aspect of bravery or heroism in battle. If I were to venture a definition, I should say that true bravery or heroism consists in conscious self-sacrifice for the benefit of others, or in the performance of duty. And the less expectation of reward or distinction there is connected with the act of self-sacrifice, the more genuine the bravery or heroism will be. ”

“ Noble and illustrious bravery of the soul, which, when the yelling fiends of popular passion and prejudice beset the ascending pathway of virtue, can look to conscience, to posterity, and to God, and defy them all! Follow their example, gentlemen, and, whatever fierce sounds of public condemnation may be now rung in your ears, you will have the same glorious reward, and your children, and all the good men of your country, will honor your memories. ”

“ It is bravery which animates the heart, reason springs from the soul, and force depends upon the body; without bravery we fear obstacles, danger, and death; without reason, courage would have no legitimate view; and without force it would be useless: these three qualities should concur to form the true military valor. ”

“ Bravery is the monopoly of none, and bravery has so many different sides that it cannot be defined.
I have seen boys, brought up in refined homes, gentle sweet-faced laddies—the last people in the world one would associate with soldiers—rise to heights of the most superb self-sacrifice. ”

“ PROWESS. Synonyms:
Bravery, courage, heroism, and intrepidity may be silent, spiritual, or passive; they may be exhibited by a martyr at the stake. Prowess and valor imply both daring and doing; we do not speak of the prowess of a martyr, a child, or a passive sufferer. Valor meets odds or perils with courageous action, doing its utmost to conquer at any risk or cost; prowess has power adapted to the need; dauntless valor is often vain against superior prowess. Courage is a nobler word than bravery, involving more of the deep, spiritual, and enduring elements of character ”

“ War and courage have done more great things than charity. Not your sympathy, but your bravery hath hitherto saved the victims.
"What is good?" ye ask. To be brave is good. Let the little girls say: "To be good is what is pretty, and at the same time touching." ”

“ Since then, my boy, I have weighed and contrasted my own feelings and those of the Conservative Kentucky chap on that occasion, when I won an everlasting reputation for bravery; and I am satisfied that the bravery of a man in an affair of honor is a superior capacity for concealing terror. ”

“ Courage, bravery, intrepidity. A generous quality, which, far from assuming brutality and violence, with-holds the fury of the soldier, protects helpless women, innocent infants, and hoary age. Nothing which is incapable of resistance, can ever be the object whereon true valor would exercise its prowess. Courage is that grandeur of soul, which prompts us to sacrifice all personal advantages, and even the preservation of our beings, to a love of our country and its liberty. The exercise of this determined courage in the profession of arms, is called valor. ”

“ Courage seems fittest for a general, and for all those who command; bravery more necessary for a soldier, and for all those who receive orders; bravery is in the blood; courage in the soul; the first is a kind of instinct, the second a virtue; the one is an impulse almost mechanical, the other a noble and a sublime conception. A man is brave at a particular time, and according to circumstances ”

“ Remember that the veritable bravery also, as the philosopher sees it, is a form of that "knowledge," which in truth includes in itself all other virtues, all good things whatever; that it is a form of "right opinion," and has a kind of insight in it, a real apprehension of the occasion and its claims on one's courage, whether it is worth while to fight, and to what point. ”

“ The rewards which it bestows upon its members, who are distinguished for a self-forgetting bravery which thrills the blood to read of, are merely the outward tokens of admiration which is felt by every heart. Those members include persons of all ranks of life: men, women, and children ”

“ The cardinal virtues are bravery, wisdom, love of home and family, and regard for hospitality. In a life of action, filled with war, bravery is of prime importance; by it wealth, power, and honor are won. ”

“ Beside this, at that time bravery and strength showed what every man was worth, and still more than mere bodily strength, experience, eloquence, and a judicious insight into life and its circumstances brought to any one honour and importance. ”

“ People glorify all sorts of bravery except the bravery they might show on behalf of their nearest neighbors.” ”

“ You have faced storms at sea, and charged up hills, and pulled out drowning children, and footed it up fire-ladders, till you think that bravery is a male characteristic. You've always handed [49] out the passive suffering act to us. ”

“ In a primitive community courage meant simply physical bravery in face of danger, but as opportunities decreased for displaying such bravery in conflicts with wild beasts and the forces of nature, and in fighting against enemies, the meaning of the virtue was gradually extended. It was recognised that mere physical boldness is not the only kind of courage, and that other callings besides warfare call for the virtue. Courage thus becomes immeasurably more comprehensive. Under the general name courage are grouped the specialised aspects in which it is manifested in various vocations. ”

“ There is a kind of bravery that is natural to some, and is a constitutional fearlessness; but a far higher and surer courage belongs to those who have committed their souls to their God and Saviour, and who feel that whatever may befall them, when in the way of duty, must be for the best. ”

“ And it is as base to be bold and daring against the principle of reason and justice, as to be bold and daring in lying and perjury.
Would we therefore exercise a true fortitude, we must do all in the spirit of devotion, be valiant against the corruptions of the world, and the lusts of the flesh, and the temptations of the devil: for to be daring and courageous against these enemies, is the noblest bravery that an human mind is capable of. ”

“ Of all faults the one she most despised in others was the want of bravery; the meanness of heart which leads to untruth. ”

“ In a soldier’s character the main ornament is bravery, but in a commander prudence takes precedence of bravery; after these come self-control and fairness, whereby a wealth of virtue is gathered. Such wealth is the reward of the soul which reaches after good, and with its eyes fixed on the sweetness of the fruit, deems the toil right pleasant. ”

“ When he has performed deeds of true valor and courage, wherein he exhibits exceptional bravery, and is almost overwhelmingly besieged with letters of congratulation and praise, he has received one of the greatest of earthly rewards. ”

“ A crucible into which destiny casts a man, whenever it desires a scoundrel or a demi-god.
For many great deeds are performed in petty combats. There are instances of bravery ignored and obstinate, which defend themselves step by step in that fatal onslaught of necessities and turpitudes. Noble and mysterious triumphs which no eye beholds, which are requited with no renown, which are saluted with no trumpet blast. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are the fields of battle which have their heroes; ”

“ B The brave deserve the fair. And I think that our braver and better youth, besides their other honours and rewards, might have greater facilities of intercourse with women given them; their bravery will be a reason, and such fathers ought to have as many sons as possible. ”

“ And a third danger is timidity. Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change the world — which yields most painfully to change. ”

“ For the compassment of bravery we hear theye will robbe, steale, cozen, cheate, betray their owne Fathers, sweare and forsweare, or doe any thing. Take away braverie, you kill the hart of lust and incontinencie. Wherefore doe men make themselves brave, but to riot and to revell? Looke after what state theyr apparaile is, that state they take to them and carry, and after a little accustoming to that carriage, persuade themselves they are such indeede. ”

“ The object of each separate act of working is that which accords with the habit they go to form; Courage is the habit which separate acts of bravery go to form, therefore the object of these is that which accords with Courage, i.e. Courage itself. But Courage is honourable (which implies that the end and object of it is honour, since things are denominated according to their end and object) , therefore the object of each separate act of bravery is honour. ↑ For true Courage is required, 1. Exact appreciation of danger. 2. A Proper motive for resisting fear. ”

“ for all bravery stands upon comparisons. ”

“ However strong and courageous they may be—and I take it that courage and strength are two of the virtues you have in mind—they are at the mercy of their vices and, for that matter, at the mercy of pure virtue. ”

“ It is at all events in the power of brave men, such as you ought to be, to display your valour, (for certainly brave men can do that,) and not to fear the caprice of fortune.
But since it is not only courage but wisdom also which is expected from this order, (although these qualities appear scarcely possible to be separated, still let us separate them here,) courage bids us fight, inflames our just hatred, urges us to the conflict, summons us to danger. What says wisdom? She uses more cautious counsels, she is provident for the future, she is in every respect more on the defensive. ”

“ To be yours, to have you mine, is the greatest desire of my heart, but not in the coward's way, not at the expense of honor, of self respect—no not that way. Courage, my friend, God will show us the way, and meantime good night. ”

“ You even had the courage to go on reading all this time just as if nothing had happened."
"Ah, I told you that he was brave," exclaimed the young girl. "His is the true courage, after all,—not the ferocious courage born of anger, that seeks only to destroy, but the courage of noble hearts who, for fear of alarming those whom they love, endure the most intense suffering without so much as a sign." ”

“ Then, if I may not pity the hard fate which has befallen an innocent life, may I admire the courage which meets adverse fortune so bravely, and conquers the world by winning the respect and regard of all who see and honor it? ”

“ The mind asks itself, How will those who come after me look upon the work of to-day? The soul feels the weight of the hour, the responsibility of the moment, the duty of the instant. With the truly brave there can be no faltering then, in the face of danger. ”

“ The brave must needs honour and love the brave,
Though they are ranked against themselves in fight,
And only cowards at those foemen rave
Who manfully do blow for blow requite:
Shame then on those who libel the brave men
Who fight for all that is to them most dear ”

“ We shall take three virtues—courage, truthfulness, self-esteem—and see how distinctly they stand out each as the middle-point of two vicious extremes. That courage is the mean between cowardice and rashness does not require to be told: but what a wide field of operation does this triad open to us, while we proceed to realize it in education, and in the conduct of public affairs, and in the events of life! ”

“ It is the old name for everything we should now call ‘fairness’; it includes honesty, give and take, truthfulness, keeping promises, and all that side of life. And Fortitude includes both kinds of courage—the kind that faces danger as well as the kind that ‘sticks it’ under pain. ”

“ But while we are thus taught that, in admiring courage, we are admiring physical superiorities and those superiorities of mental faculty which give fitness for dealing with emergencies, we are also taught that, unless we rank highest the bodily powers and those powers which directly conduce to self-preservation, we cannot say that courage is the highest attribute, and that the degree of it should be our standard of honor.
That an over-estimate of courage is appropriate to our phase of civilization may be very true. ”