Profoundly inspirational coward quotes will encourage you to think a little deeper than you usually would and broaden your perspective.
Famous Coward Quotes
Only the brave know how to forgive a coward never forgave; it is not in his nature. Laurence Sterne
A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it. J.R.R. Tolkien
I’m not the type of person to give up just because something gets rough. That’s a coward. That’s not me. Kevin Garnett
Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt. William Shakespeare
You cannot be a hero without being a coward. George Bernard Shaw
In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong. Charles Dickens
Luck is everything My good luck in life was to be a really frightened person. I’m fortunate to be a coward, to have a low threshold of fear, because a hero couldn’t make a good suspense film. Alfred Hitchcock
To say you have no choice is to relieve yourself of responsibility. Patrick Ness
It is better to be the widow of a hero than the wife of a coward. Dolores Ibarruri
Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated. George Bernard Shaw
Some people are cowards I think by and large a third of people are villains, a third are cowards, and a third are heroes. Now, a villain and a coward can choose to be a hero, but they’ve got to make that choice. Tom Hanks
A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave. Mahatma Gandhi
I know you are here to kill me. Shoot, coward, you are only going to kill a man. Che Guevara
You have no enemies, you say? Alas, my friend, the boast is poor. He who has mingled in the fray of duty that the brave endure, must have made foes. If you have none, small is the work that you have done. You’ve hit no traitor on the hip. You’ve dashed no cup from perjured lip. You’ve never turned the wrong to right. You’ve been a coward in the fight. Charles Mackay
That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward. Edgar Allan Poe
The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. Umberto Eco
The coward only threatens when he is safe. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
But the only way never to do the wrong thing is never to do anything. Jim Butcher
If you leave without a fight, you will get the name of a coward. Rajinikanth
I’m astounded whenever I finish something. Astounded and distressed. My perfectionist instinct should inhibit me from finishing it should inhibit me from even beginning. But I get distracted and start doing something. What I achieve is not the product of an act of my will but of my will’s surrender. I begin because I don’t have the strength to think; I finish because I don’t have the courage to quit. This book is my cowardice. Fernando Pessoa
He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool. Albert Camus
Long before morning I knew that what I was seeking to discover was a thing I’d always known. That all courage was a form of constancy. That it is always himself that the coward abandoned first. After this all other betrayals come easily. Cormac McCarthy
A coward is not someone who goes right to your face and tells you exactly how it is. A coward is someone who walks away. The Miz
Cowards make the best torturers. Cowards understand fear and they can use it. Mark Lawrence
All trembling, I reached the Falls of Niagara, and oh, what a scene! My blood shudders still, although I am not a coward, at the grandeur of the Creator’s power; and I gazed motionless on this new display of the irresistible force of one of His elements. John James Audubon
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 Shelley
Coward One who, in a perilous emergency, thinks with his legs. Ambrose Bierce
The nation that will insist on drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards. William Francis Butler
It is a law of human nature that in victory even the coward may boast of his prowess, while defeat injures the reputation even of the brave. Sallust
Haters and bullies are always cowards, you know. They like to pick on little guys. Scylar Tyberius
Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse. Oliver Goldsmith
Fear of ridicule begets the worst cowardice. André Gide
Despair gives courage to a coward. Thomas Fuller
We believe that preparation eradicates cowardice, which we define as the failure to act in the midst of fear. Veronica Roth
Even if you’ve been a coward all your life, death is a heroic act. Abi Morgan
A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide. Mickey Mantle
It is vain for the coward to flee; death follows close behind; it is only by defying it that the brave escape. Voltaire
In self defense and in defense of the innocent, cowardice is the only sin. Dean Koontz
Courage and conviction are powerful weapons against an enemy who depends only on fists or guns. Animals know when you are afraid; a coward knows when you are not. David Seabury
Cowardice rightly understood begins with selfishness and ends with shame. José Rizal
I’m a hero with coward’s legs. Spike Milligan
If you want a definition of what a coward is, it’s needing to push a whole class of people down so that you can walk on top of them. Andrea Dworkin
The coward sneaks to death; the brave live on. George Sewell
The coward says in his heart There is no love. Because, standing in the shadows of the big, grand, and powerful existence of love, his small spirit is left feeling even smaller and less significant. And so he chooses to deny the existence of love altogether. Because he is too small to have it. C. JoyBell C.
I guess I wanted to show people, among other things, that you don’t have to be a hero to get through cancer. You can be a craven coward and get through. You have to stay on your medication and take your treatments, that’s all. Harvey Pekar
Being afraid you’ll look like a coward is the worst reason for doing anything. John Irving
I’d like to see one person just one who would own up to having been a coward. Edith Piaf
Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, Basil. Conscience is the trade name of the firm. That is all. Oscar Wilde
It is the coward who fawns upon those above him. It is the coward who is insolent whenever he dares be so. Junius
The subtle and deadly change of heart that might occur in you would be involved with the realization that a civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless. James Baldwin
The man who gets drunk in peacetime is a coward. The man who gets drunk in wartime goes on being a coward. Jose Bergamin
It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half of the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen. Herodotus
I am a coward, basically, but one of the things about acting is that you are always putting yourself through yet another test. Samuel West
We may place blame, give reasons, and even have excuses; but in the end, it is an act of cowardice to not follow your dreams. Steve Maraboli
The coward’s weapon, poison. John Fletcher
The devil’s happy when the critics run you off. Criss Jami
I run; I am a coward at heart. I swear, when I smell violence or aggression the coward comes out in me. I have no desire to fight anybody except myself. Rutger Hauer
Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and perceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and last some crisis shows what we have become. Brooke Foss Westcott
Of what value is a mind when placed in the brain of a coward? If the mind is a gift of God to man for his use, let him use it. A mind is not in use when doing no good. Andrew Taylor Still
If you go to your death rather than do everything you might to prevent what is happening, you are merely committing suicide and trying to make yourself feel better about it. That is the act of a coward. It is beneath contempt. Jim Butcher
I’m a charming coward; I fight with words. Carl Reiner
When in doubt chicken out. Robin Jones Gunn
Since cowardice must occur at a time and place where an enemy either has already appeared or may yet turn up, servicemen in peacetime and ordinary civilians can breathe a sigh of relief. If you are yellow bellied back home, you’re not technically a coward. Charles Duhigg
Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away. Thomas Fuller
I guess you could say I’m cautious, or a coward. Namie Amuro
That was the thing to remember about all monsters, They love to frighten people, but the minute you stare them down, they turn tail and run. Jeanette Walls
If you are strong, and you are fighting the weak for any period of time, you are going to become weak yourself. If you behave like a coward, then you are going to become cowardly it’s only a question of time. Martin Van Creveld
You write in songs what you’re too scared to write in real life, and then you sing the songs to loads of people instead of telling it to the person you should be telling it to Songs are a great way of dealing with those issues but kind of a coward’s way as well. Winston Marshall
It is for your own good to love a dare devil rather than a holy coward. A dare devil is a unique devil, battling your fears, your pains, conquering your uncertainties, carrying you his arms, and flying out of the corrosive fire. The coward is a trickster serpent, which vanishes in your time of despair, and appears in time of equanimity. Michael Bassey Johnson
I was never a weapons person, you’re a coward if you have to walk with a weapon, be a man and fight. Anthony Yarde
I do not wish to be a coward like the father of mankind and throw the blame upon a woman. Ouida
I am actually a terrible coward. Fear is a constant fact of my life. Trevor McDonald
Idiot. Which road do you take when you’re running from something weaker than yourself? Or maybe you’re the one looking for an excuse to back out. Watsuki Nobuhiro
The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. Umberto Eco
If you run from enemy fire, I’ll make you wash dishes for the rest of your life! Naoki Urasawa
If I’m scared and I’m a coward, why do you guys want to see me fight? Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
Zaphod did not want to tangle with them and, deciding that just as discretion is the better part of valor, so was cowardice is the better part of discretion, he valiantly hid himself in a closet. Douglas Adams
A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide. Mickey Mantle
No one is born to courage, Juliet. Courage is a habit you develop after cowardice has gotten you nothing. Sabrina Jeffries
A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God’s truth is attacked and yet would remain silent. John Calvin
Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it. Albert Camus
A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, and a courageous person afterward. Jean Paul
Like 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
Courage is the fear of being thought a coward. Horace Smith
But often life asks much of you, and you either honor life by answering with all your heart, or you cower your way into your grave. James Clemens
A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it. J.R.R. Tolkien
Fear has no brains; it is an idiot. The dismal witness that it bears and the cowardly counsel that it whispers are unrelated. Ambrose Bierce
In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong. Charles Dickens
Do not be afraid. Because if you let these fears consume you, you’ll most likely fail even before everything else starts. Veronica Mist
