Proverbs 28:1 (KJV)
The wicked flee when no man pursueth:
but the righteous are bold as a lion.
The following is from “The Character of True Courage” - Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
We betray our weakness, not only when we fear things really not formidable, but when we are affected in an undue degree, or at an improper time, by objects of real danger. A brave man avoids such errors, and, estimating things by their real worth, prefers the grace and beauty of habitual fortitude to the delusive security of deformed cowardice.
Audacity... is the mere ape of true manhood.
What the brave man is, the rash and audacious man wishes to appear.
He courts and provokes unnecessary dangers, but fails in the hour of trial; and is, for the most part, a blustering bully, who, under a semblance of pretended courage, conceals no inconsiderable portion of cowardice.
True courage never provokes danger, but is always ready to meet even death in an honorable cause. But to die, rather than endure manfully the pressure of poverty, or the stings of love, or any other cruel suffering, is the part of a coward; who basely flies from an enemy that he has not spirit to encounter; and ignominiously quits the field, where he might have sustained a strenuous and honorable conflict.
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