Cowardice Quotes - Page 22

• Courage, like cowardice, is undoubtedly contagious, but some persons are not liable to catch it.

  George D. Prentice

  Courage, Liable, Contagious

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• The recommendation by the Arkansas Supreme Court Disciplinary Committee that President Clinton be disbarred is like a tender green shoot of integrity rising from the stinking junkyard of American public life. At last, some official body has come to a decision about Clinton's conduct that is untainted by politics, cowardice or cynicism.

  Mona Charen

  Integrity, Decision, President

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• It may...be judged indecent in me to come forward on this occasion; but when I see a fellow-creature about to perish through the cowardice of her pretended friends, I wish to be allowed to speak, that I may say what I know of her character.

  Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

  Character, Wish, May

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• Without the blessing of cowardice, the world would long since have been torn to bits.

  Mason Cooley

  Blessing, Long, World

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• This is one of the stout-hearted old warriors: he is angry with civilization because he supposes that its aim is to make all goodthings--honors, treasures, beautiful women--accessible even to cowards.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Beautiful, Courage, Warrior

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• To say less of yourself than is true is stupidity, not modesty. To pay yourself less than you are worth is cowardice and pusillanimity.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Self, Stupidity, Pay

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.274, Stanford University Press

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• Our leaders have described the recent atrocity with the customary cliche: mindless cowardice. Mindless may be a suitable word for the vandalising of a telephone box. It is not helpful for understanding what hit New York on September 11. Those people were not mindless and they were certainly not cowards. On the contrary, they had sufficiently effective minds braced with an insane courage, and it would pay us mightily to understand where that courage came from. It came from religion.

  Richard Dawkins

  New York, People, Leader

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• Such is the nature and make-up of the French that they are only good at the start. Then they are worse than devils, but, given time, they're less than women.

  Francois Rabelais

  Courage, War, Devil

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• Whatever your sex or position, life is a battle in which you are to show your pluck, and woe be to the coward. Whether passed on a bed of sickness or a tented field, it is ever the same fair play and admits no foolish distinction. Despair and postponement are cowardice and defeat. Men were born to succeed, not to fail.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Courage, Sex, Men

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.59, BookBaby

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• We shall never know how many acts of cowardice have been motivated by the fear of appearing not sufficiently progressive.

  Charles Peguy

  Courage, Progressive, Motivated

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• Cowardice, when done correctly, can be its own kind of bravery.

  Paul Neilan

  Bravery, Done, Kind

  Paul Neilan (2007). “Apathy and Other Small Victories: A Novel”, p.211, Macmillan

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• There could be no justice, unless there were also injustice; no courage, unless there were cowardice; no truth, unless there were falsehood.

  Chrysippus

  Justice, Injustice, Falsehood

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• Through laziness and cowardice a large part of mankind, even after nature has freed them from alien guidance, gladly remain immature. It is because of laziness and cowardice that it is so easy for others to usurp the role of guardians. It is so comfortable to be a minor!

  Immanuel Kant

  Immature, Immaturity, Roles

  "Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?". Essay by Immanuel Kant, 1784.

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• There comes a point, in literary objectivity, when the author's self- effacement is hard to distinguish from moral cowardice.

  Edward Abbey

  Self, Objectivity, Moral

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• Now must we sing and sing the best we can,
  But first you must be told your character:
  Convicted cowards all, by kindred slain.

  William Butler Yeats

  Character, Coward, Firsts

  William Butler Yeats (2001). “The Major Works”, p.170

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