Cowardice Quotes - Page 15

• There is such a thing as a hatred of lies and dissimulation, which is the outcome of a delicate sense of humor; there is also the selfsame hatred but as the result of cowardice, in so far as falsehood is forbidden by Divine law. Too cowardly to lie.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Lying, Law, Hatred

  Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, William A. Haussmann, Maximilian August Mügge, John McFarland Kennedy, Anthony Mario Ludovici (1927). “The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche: The First Complete and Authorized English Translation”

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• The ultimate evil is the weakness, cowardice, that is one of the constituents of so much human nature. When, rarely, unalloyed nobility does occur, its chances of prevailing are slim. Yet it exists, and its mere existence is reason enough for not wiping the name of mankind off the slate.

  John Simon

  Names, Evil, Slim

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• Cowards suffer, heroes enjoy.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Hero, Joy, Suffering

  Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1865). “Letters to Various Persons”, p.184

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• The monster is never just there where we think he is. What is truly monstrous is our cowardice and sloth.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Thinking, Sloth, Monsters

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.1786, Delphi Classics

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• They say cowardice is infectious; but then argument is, on the other hand, a great emboldener.

  Robert Louis Stevenson

  Hands, Argument

  Robert Louis Stevenson (1884). “Treasure Island”, p.30

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• When faced with a choice between violence and cowardice, always choose violence

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Choices, Violence

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• A people may prefer a free government, but if, from indolence, or carelessness, or cowardice, or want of public spirit, they are unequal to the exertions necessary for preserving it. They are more or less unfit for liberty; and although it may be for their good to have had it even for a short time, they are unlikely long to enjoy it

  John Stuart Mill

  Government, Long, People

  "Considerations on Representative Government". Book by John Stuart Mill (p. 6), 1861.

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• If publishers and editors exert themselves to keep certain topics out of print, it is not because they are frightened of prosecution but because they are frightened of public opinion. In this country intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy a writer or journalist has to face, and that fact does not seem to me to have had the discussion it deserves.

  George Orwell

  Country, Worst Enemy, Editors

  George Orwell (2009). “Animal Farm: A Fairy Story”, p.206, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• In this country, intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy a writer or journalist has to face ... Unpopular ideas can be silenced, and incovenient facts kept dark, without the need for any official ban ... At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of iedas which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question.

  George Orwell

  Country, Dark, Thinking

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• To see what is right and not to do it is cowardice. It is never a question of who is right but what is right.

  John Buchan

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• True courage lies in the middle, between cowardice and recklessness.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Lying, Middle, True Courage

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• The one thing you can count on in Hollywood - across the board - is cowardice.

  Sean Penn

  Hollywood, Boards, One Thing

  "Give it up for Sean Penn" by James Kaplan, www.theguardian.com. May 6, 2001.

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• Love that seeks to do men good is cowardice when it refuses to prevent them from doing wrong.

  Shailer Mathews

  Men, Refuse

  Shailer Mathews (1918). “Patriotism and Religion”

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• On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right? There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Life, Courage, Time

  "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution". Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Speech in Washington, D.C., kinginstitute.stanford.edu. March 31, 1968.

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• I love women who are bosses and who don't constantly worry about what their employees think of them. I love women who don't ask, "Is that OK?" after everything they say. I love when women are courageous in the face of unthinkable circumstances, like my mother when she was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer. Or like Gabrielle Giffords writing editorials for the New York Times about the cowardice of Congress regarding gun laws and using phrases like "mark my words" like she is Clint Eastwood. How many women say stuff like that?

  Mindy Kaling

  Mother, New York, Cancer

  "Lena Dunham Hilariously, Candidly Interviews Mindy Kaling". Interview with Lena Dunham, www.rollingstone.com. November 11, 2013.

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• Moral cowardice at the expense of the vulnerable unborn is both wrong and pathetic.

  Russell D. Moore

  Moral, Vulnerable, Expenses

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• Cowardice is incompatible with divine wisdom.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Divine Wisdom, Coward, Divine

  Mahatma Gandhi (1965). “None High: None Low”

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• Despising cowardice in others, I wished to prove myself no coward. Believing in the good, the gentle, the beautiful things of life, I addressed myself to the sweet duty of keeping these attributes for my children's sake and my own. And in striving to provide a living for them, I found a success beyond my wildest dreams.

  Alice Foote MacDougall

  Inspirational, Life, Beautiful

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• Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member. Courage without love and wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier. Wisdom without love and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual. But the one who has love, courage and wisdom moves the world.

  Ammon Hennacy

  Love, Wisdom, Moving

  Ammon Hennacy (2010). “The Book of Ammon”, p.149, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• Politically correct is the language of cowardice.

  Billy Connolly

  Language, Politically Correct

  "Billy Connolly: Live 1994". DVD, 1994.

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• The year 1776, celebrated as the birth year of the nation and for the signing of the Declaration of Independence, was for those who carried the fight for independence forward a year of all-too-few victories, of sustained suffering, disease, hunger, desertion, cowardice, disillusionment, defeat, terrible discouragement, and fear, as they would never forget, but also of phenomenal courage and bedrock devotion to country, and that, too they would never forget.

  David McCullough

  Country, Fighting, Years

  David McCullough (2011). “David McCullough American History E-book Box Set: John Adams, 1776, Truman, The Course of Human Events”, p.643, Simon and Schuster

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• I think that is the ultimate cowardice, when someone makes your choices for you in an institutional way. And you just say, "Well, I have no other option."

  Guillermo del Toro

  Thinking, Choices, Ultimate

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• Cowardice in a race, as in an individual, is the unpardonable sin.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Race, Sin, Individual

  Theodore Roosevelt (1897). “American ideals and other essays, social and political”

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• Knowing what's correct and not doing it, it's the worst cowardice.

  Confucius

  Knowing, Worst

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• It is from cowardice and not from want of enlightenment that we do not read in our own hearts.

  Stendhal

  Heart, Self, Enlightenment

  Stendhal (2015). “Amarance”, p.44, Stendhal

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