Cowards falter, but danger is often overcome by those who nobly dare.
—Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) British Monarch
Cowards can never be moral.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
My valor is certainly going, it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out as it were, at the palms of my hands!
—Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751–1816) Irish-born British Playwright, Poet, Elected Rep
For cowards the road of desertion should be left open; they will carry over to the enemy nothing, but their fears.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
Cowards die a thousand deaths. The valiant taste of death but once.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession, but carrying a banner.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
It is better to be the widow of a hero than the wife of a coward.
—Dolores Ibarruri (1895–1989) Spanish Communist Leader
When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
When the adulation of life is gone, the coward sneaks to his death, but the brave live on.
—George Sewell (1687–1726) English Physician, Poet
Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Peace and plenty breed cowards; hardness ever of hardiness is the mother.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
A coward gets scared and quits. A hero gets scared, but still goes on.
—Unknown
Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
A coward turns away, but a brave man’s choice is danger.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
How many feasible projects have miscarried through despondency, and been strangled in their birth by a cowardly imagination.
—Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) Anglican Church Historian, Clergyman
If you knew how cowardly your enemy is, you would slap him. Bravery is knowledge of the cowardice in the enemy.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
Man gives every reason for his conduct save one, every excuse for his crimes save one, every plea for his safety save one; and that one is his cowardice.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Between cowardice and despair, valour is gendered.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
The craven’s fear is but selfishness, like his merriment.
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92) American Quaker Poet, Abolitionist
The most mortifying infirmity in human nature … is, perhaps, cowardice.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
Fear has its use but cowardice has none.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
To say a person is a coward has no more meaning than to say he is lazy: It simply tells us that some vital potentiality is unrealized or blocked.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
Cowards cannot see that their greatest safety lies in dauntless courage.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
A coward is one who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
There is a level of cowardice lower than that of the conformist: the fashionable non-conformist.
—Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher
Cowardice is the mother of cruelty.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
It is the coward who fawns upon those above him. It is the coward who is insolent whenever he dares be so.
—Junius Unidentified English Writer
Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Don’t think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drive into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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