Cowardice Quotes - Page 12

• Intemperance is naturally punished with diseases; rashness, with mischance; injustice; with violence of enemies; pride, with ruin; cowardice, with oppression; and rebellion, with slaughter.

  Thomas Hobbes

  Pride, Political, Enemy

  Thomas Hobbes (2010). “Leviathan - Revised Edition”, p.312, Broadview Press

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• Survival, with honor, that outmoded and all-important word, is as difficult as ever and as all-important to a writer. Those who do not last are always more beloved since no one has to see them in their long, dull, unrelenting, no-quarter-given-and-no-quarter-received, fights that they make to do something as they believe it should be done before they die. Those who die or quit early and easy and with every good reason are preferred because they are understandable and human. Failure and well-disguised cowardice are more human and more beloved.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Believe, Fighting, Long

  "Paris Review interview". Interview with George Plimpton, Paris Review Issue 18, Spring, 1958.

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• Since I no longer expect anything from mankind except madness, meanness, and mendacity; egotism, cowardice, and self-delusion, I have stopped being a misanthrope.

  Irving Layton

  Self, Madness, Misanthrope

  Irving Layton (1969). “The whole bloody bird: obs, aphs & pomes”

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• Lies come from fear, from cowardice.

  Jenny Sanford

  Lying

  Jenny Sanford (2010). “Staying True”, p.193, Ballantine Books

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• Some people mistake weakness for tact. If they are silent when they ought to speak and so feign an agreement they do not feel, they call it being tactful. Cowardice would be a much better name. Tact is an active quality t hat is not exercised by merely making a dash for cover. Be sure, when you think you are being extremely tactful, that you are not in reality running away from something you ought to face.

  Frank Medlicott

  Running, Mistake, Reality

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• Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.

  John Adams

  Names, Hypocrisy, Suffering

  "A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law" by John Adams, teachingamericanhistory.org. 1765.

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• ...it is a sneaking piece of cowardice for authors to put feigned names to their works, as if, like bastards of their brain, they were afraid to own them.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Names, Brain, Pieces

  Desiderius Erasmus (2016). “In Praise of Folly”, p.54, Desiderius Erasmus

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• 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

  Life, Retirement, Sorry

  On Jeremiah Markland, in James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 4, p. 161, n. 3 (10 October 1782)

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• You must be fearless. It is the coward who fears and defends himself

  Swami Vivekananda

  Fearless, Coward

  Swami Vivekananda (1997). “Prabuddha Bharata: Or Awakened India”

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• Never allow weakness to overtake your mind. Remember Mahavira, remember the Divine Mother! And you will see that all weakness, all cowardice will vanish at once.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Mother, Mind, Coward

  Swami Vivekananda, Swami Saradananda (1964). “Swamiji's Message to a Disciple: Reprint from the Talks with Swami Vivekananda”

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• May the Lord ordain that your son becomes a man, and never a coward!

  Swami Vivekananda

  Son, Men, Coward

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.3372, Manonmani Publishers

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• She never forgets a slight, real or imagined. She takes caution for cowardice and dissent for defiance. And she is greedy. Greedy for power, for honour, for love.

  George R. R. Martin

  Real, Greed, Never Forget

  "A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five". Book by George R. R. Martin, 2011.

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• No cowardice, no sin, no crime, no weakness - the rest will come of itself. . .

  Swami Vivekananda

  Coward, Weakness, Sin

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1902, Manonmani Publishers

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• ...Really, there is no greater sin than cowardice; cowards are never saved - that is sure. I can stand everything else but not that.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Coward, Sin, Saved

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.4013, Manonmani Publishers

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• From long familiarity, we know what honor is. It is what enables the individual to do right in the face of complacency and cowardice. It is what enables the soldier to die alone, the political prisoner to resist, the singer to sing her song, hardly appreciated, on a side street.

  Mark Helprin

  Song, Long, Political

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• Optimism and self-pity are the positive and negative poles of modern cowardice.

  Cyril Connolly

  Inspirational, Self, Optimism

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• Order or disorder depends on organisation and direction; courage or cowardice on circumstances; strength or weakness on tactical dispositions.

  Sun Tzu

  War, Order, Weakness

  "The Art of War".

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• All doubt is cowardice - all trust is brave.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Courage, Brave, Doubt

  "King Arthur". Book by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Book XII, Chapter XXVIII, 1848-1849.

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• Granted the endless variations of moral customs, still the essential standards persist. As in a scientific laboratory, all else may change but the standards are unalterable- disinterested love of truth, fidelity to facts, accuracy in measurement, exactness of verification-so, in life as a whole, the towering ethical criteria remain unshaken. Falsehood is never better than truth, theft better than than honesty, treachery better than loyalty, cowardice better than courage.

  Harry Emerson Fosdick

  Loyalty, Truth, Honesty

  Harry Emerson Fosdick (1952). “A faith for tough times”

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• That cowardice is incorrigible which the love of power cannot overcome.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Power, Overcoming, Incorrigible

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.34

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• Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest form of cowardice.

  Holbrook Jackson

  Mind, Censorship In Books, Generations

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• We are all born cowards.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Coward, Born

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1424, Manonmani Publishers

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• We are for ever trying to make our weakness look like strength, our sentiment like love, our cowardice like courage, and so on.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Like Love, Coward, Trying

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2382, Manonmani Publishers

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• We know how often in our lives through laziness and cowardice we give up the battle and try to hypnotise our minds into the belief that we are brave.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Giving Up, Brave, Mind

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.417, Manonmani Publishers

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• The most mortifying infirmity in human nature, to feel in ourselves, or to contemplate in another, is perhaps cowardice.

  Charles Lamb

  Anxiety, Human Nature, Infirmity

  Charles Lamb (1867). “The essays of Elia. [Followed by] The last essays of Elia”, p.219

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