Optimism and self-pity are the positive and negative poles of modern cowardice.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
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
Covetousness like jealousy, when it has taken root, never leaves a person, but with their life. Cowardice is the dread of what will happen.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
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
The craven’s fear is but selfishness, like his merriment.
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–92) American Quaker Poet, Abolitionist
One of the chief misfortunes of honest people is that they are cowardly.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Cowards falter, but danger is often overcome by those who nobly dare.
—Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) British Monarch
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
At the bottom of a good deal of the bravery that appears in the world there lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
A coward gets scared and quits. A hero gets scared, but still goes on.
—Unknown
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
Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
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
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
The most mortifying infirmity in human nature … is, perhaps, cowardice.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
Cowardice is the mother of cruelty.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
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
To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Cowards cannot see that their greatest safety lies in dauntless courage.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
Faint heart never won fair lady.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
The cowards never started—and the weak died along the way.
—Unknown
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
A coward turns away, but a brave man’s choice is danger.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
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
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
Fear has its use but cowardice has none.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Cowards die a thousand deaths. The valiant taste of death but once.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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
The coward threatens when he is safe.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Cowardice is not synonymous with prudence.—It often happens that the better part of discretion is valor.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Between cowardice and despair, valour is gendered.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
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
That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward.
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49) American Poet
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
A coward is one who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Cowards can never be moral.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
That cowardice is incorrigible which the love of power cannot overcome.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
The coward despairs.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
Cowards are cruel, but the brave love mercy and delight to save.
—John Gay (1685–1732) English Poet, Dramatist
It is better to be a coward for a minute than dead for the rest of your life.
—Irish Proverb
I am convinced that a light supper, a good night’s sleep, and a fine morning, have sometimes made a hero of the same man, who, by an indigestion, a restless night, and rainy morning, would have proved a coward.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Peace and plenty breed cowards; hardness ever of hardiness is the mother.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
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