quotations about cowardice
I'm a coward. Only way I can do something this frightening is to tell myself I'm not doing it!
DIANA WYNNE JONES
Howl's Moving Castle
A coward isn't someone who is afraid, or even who backs down sometimes; a coward is someone who won't defend what he or she believes in, or what he or she holds precious. So courage and integrity go hand in hand.
SARA DIMERMAN
Character Is the Key
The coward calls himself cautious.
SYRUS
Maxims
Apathy adds up, in the long run, to cowardice.
ROLLO MAY
The Courage to Create
Being afraid you'll look like a coward is the worst reason for doing anything.
JOHN IRVING
The Cider House Rules
Haters and bullies are always cowards, you know. They like to pick on little guys.
SCYLAR TYBERIUS
Sebastian the Great
Conscience and cowardice are really the same things.... Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all.
OSCAR WILDE
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Excessive fear withers us, and the cowards are like desiccated relics of human beings.
CAROLINE REICHARD
Some Grace Under Pressure
Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Men at War
Cowards are nice, they're interesting, they're gentle, they wouldn't think of shooting down people in a parade from a tower. They want to live, so they can see their kids.
WILLIAM SAROYAN
Madness in the Family
A fellow running from or toward a gun ain't got time to worry whether the word for what he is doing is courage or cowardice.
WILLIAM FAULKNER
Light in August
There never was found a man who had courage to acknowledge himself a coward.
JOSEPH BARTLETT
Aphorisms
For cowards the rode of desertion should be left open. They will carry over to the enemy nothing but their fears.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Shame never came into it. He embraced his new identity as a coward. He would run in the other direction. He would lie down and cry and put his arms over his head or play dead. It didn't matter what he had to do, he would do it and be glad.
LEV GROSSMAN
The Magicians
Life is too short to cower.
CLAIRE CROSS
Double Trouble
You souls of geese,
That bear the shapes of men, how have you run
From slaves that apes would beat!
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Coriolanus
COWARD, n. One who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs.
AMBROSE BIERCE
The Devil's Dictionary
Cowards do not count in battle; they are there, but not in it.
EURIPIDES
fragment, Meleager
To wish for death is a coward's part.
OVID
Metamorphoses
A brave man's look is worth more than a coward's sword.
ANONYMOUS
The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Toasts & Quotes