Quotessence
Home / Topics / Cowardly Quotes

Cowardly Quotes

Browse 285 quotes about Cowardly.

Related topics

MenPeopleIfsBraveKnowsThinkingWorldWayCowardiceWantFightingMindMeanShouldBelieveCowardCowardly ActsWarHas BeensLazyMayViolenceBraveryPeacePersonsWeakBattleBookChildrenCourageDoeEndsGivingHeartRunningSelfSelfishStupidTrying

Cowardly Quotes

“When writing goes painfully, when it’s hideously difficult, and one feels real despair (ah, the despair, silly as it is, is real!)–then naturally one ought to continue with the work; it would be cowardly to retreat. But when writing goes smoothly–why then one certainly should keep on working, since it would be stupid to stop. Consequently one is always writing or should be writing.”

FeelsShouldWritingRealWould BeDifficultStupidOughtDespairSillyWorking ItRetreatCowardly
Author:Joyce Carol Oates
Create image

“People pontificate, "Suicide is selfishness." Career churchmen like Pater go a step further and call in a cowardly assault on the living. Oafs argue this specious line for varying reason: to evade fingers of blame, to impress one's audience with one's mental fiber, to vent anger, or just because one lacks the necessary suffering to sympathize. Cowardice is nothing to do with it - suicide takes considerable courage. Japanese have the right idea. No, what's selfish is to demand another to endure an intolerable existence, just to spare families, friends, and enemies a bit of soul-searching.”

PeopleIdeasSoulReasonSufferingBitsLinesExistenceStepsEnemyCareersAudienceDemandBlameSuicideGuiltFingersEndureArguingSelfishSelfishnessCowardiceSparesImpressAssaultSoul SearchingCowardlyFiberFamily FriendsFriends And EnemiesRight Ideas
Author:David Mitchell
Create image

“And I said to myself that unless you conceive Death to be a violent guerrilla and kidnaper who snatches those you love, and if you are not cowardly and cannot submit to such terrorism as civilized people now do in every department of life, you must pursue and inquire and explore every possibility and seek everywhere and try everything.”

PeopleIfsTryingSaidPossibilityTerrorismViolentPursueDepartmentCivilizedSubmitCowardlyGuerrillasThose You Love
Book:Humboldt's Gift
Create image

“Think of the beginning of the story of the beginning of everything: Adam (without Eve and without divine guidance) names the animals. Continuing his work, we call stupid people bird-brained, cowardly people chickens, fools turkeys. Are these the best names we have to offer? If we can revise the notion of women coming from a rib, can’t we revise our categorizations of the animals that, draped with barbecue sauce, end up as the ribs on our dinner plates — or for that matter, the KFC in our hands?”

PeopleIfsThinkingEndsMatterStoriesHandsNamesAnimalStupidDivineFoolOffersBirdNotionDinnerGuidanceChickensAdamPlatesContinuingTurkeysStupid PeopleSauceCowardlyRibsBarbecueCategorizationDivine GuidanceKfcBarbecue SauceDinner Plates
Author:Jonathan Safran Foer
Create image

“Girls like you are responsible for all the tiresome colorless marriages; all those ghastly inefficiencies that pass as feminine qualities. What a blow it must be when a man with imagination marries the beautiful bundle of clothes that he's been building ideals around, and finds that she's just a weak, whining, cowardly mass of affectations!”

MenBeautifulGirlImaginationQualityBuildingLike YouClothesMassIdealsWeakResponsibleBlowFeminineCowardlyBundlesWhiningGhastlyTiresomeInefficiencyColorless
Book:Bernice Bobs Her Hair and Other Stories
Create image

“Small Man can be a very funny or a very tiresome Tour Companion, depending on how this kind of thing grabs you. He gambles, he drinks too much and he always runs away. Since the Rules allow him to make Jokes, he will excuse his behaviour in a variety of comical ways. Physically he is stunted and not at all handsome, although he usually dresses flamboyantly. He tends to wear hats with feathers in. You will discover he is very vain. But, if you can avoid smacking him, you will come to tolerate if not love him. He will contrive, in some cowardly way, to play a major part in saving the world.”

IfsMenWorldWayKindPlayRunningToo MuchDrinkMajorsJokesDressesExcuseSavingVarietyVainHatsCompanionRunning AwayTolerateBehaviourHandsomeFeathersGambleCowardlySave The WorldComicalTiresomeSmall Man
Author:Diana Wynne Jones
Create image

“Yet if there's no reason to live without a child, how could there be with one? To answer one life with a successive life is simply to transfer the onus of purpose to the next generation; the displacements amounts to a cowardly and potentially infinite delay. Your children's answer, presumably, will be to procreate as well, and in doing so to distract themselves, to foist their own aimlessness onto their offspring.”

IfsWellsChildrenReasonLife IsPurposeNextAnswersGenerationsAmountInfiniteYour ChildrenNo ReasonDelayNext GenerationTransfersCowardlyOffspringDisplacementReason To LiveNo Reason To LiveAimlessness
Book:We Need To Talk About Kevin
Create image

“Courage~ What makes the flag on the mast to wave? What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the "ape" in apricot?~Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz”

WonderHotWaveCome UpDawnLionsFlagsElephantsThunderWizardsMistApesCowardlyDuskMistyScarecrowMastsSphinxMuskWizard Of Oz WizardWonderful Wizard Of OzApricotsCoward And CourageTin ManMuskrats
Author:L. Frank Baum
Create image

“Your cowardly self-delusions about “love” when you know as well as I do that there’s never been anything between us but contempt and distrust and a terrible sickly dependence on each other’s weakness- that’s why. That’s why I couldn’t stop laughing about the Inability to Love, and that’s why I can’t stand to let you touch me, and that’s why I’ll never again believe in anything you think, let alone anything you say”

ThinkingKnowsBelieveWellsI CanSelfLaughingTerribleWeaknessDelusionContemptDependenceDistrustInabilityCowardlyTouch MeSelf DelusionInability To Love
Author:Richard Yates
Create image

“I tried many, many times to run away while my little brother was asleep. But at those moments, I always ended up thinking this-- My brother has only me in this world. Vince wants only me and needs only me. However... when he is gone, will there really be anyone else who needs me? When I thought about that, it scared me. It truly scared me. Cowardly, I could do nothing but hold my brother's tiny body while hiding my ugly emotions.”

ThinkingWorldWantNeedsLittlesMomentsBodyRunningEmotionGoneThis WorldBrotherScaredUglyTinyMy BrotherHidingRunning AwayCowardlyLittle BrotherMy Little Brother
Author:Jun Mochizuki
Create image

“It must be remembered that in those great days I was considered to be an "integrationist" - this was never, quite, my own idea of myself - and Malcolm was considered to be a "racist in reverse." This formulation, in terms of power - and power is the arena in which racism is acted out - means absolutely nothing: it may even be described as a cowardly formulation. The powerless, by definition, can never be "racists," for they can never make the world pay for what they feel or fear except by the suicidal endeavor which makes them fanatics or revolutionaries, or both.”

WorldFeelsMayMeanIdeasTermMy OwnPayRacismDefinitionsRememberedRevolutionaryRacistEndeavorReversePowerlessSuicidalArenaFanaticsAbsolutely NothingCowardlyGreat Day
Author:James A. Baldwin
Create image

“Americans have become conditioned to believe the world is a gray place without absolutes; this is because we’re simultaneously cowardly and arrogant. We don’t know the answers, so we assume they must not exist. But they do exist. They are unclear and/or unfathomable, but they’re out there. And—perhaps surprisingly—the only way to find those answers is to study NBA playoff games that happened twenty years ago. For all practical purposes, the voice of Brent Musburger was the pen of Ayn Rand.”

KnowsWorldWayYearsBelievePurposeGamesVoiceAnswersStudyHappenedYears AgoAbsolutesTwentiesAssumingPracticalsPensNbaGrayArrogantCowardlyPlayoffsUnfathomableUnclearPlayoff Games
Book:Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
Create image

“I don't know" means "NO!" "I don't know" means "I'm too cowardly to tell you the truth because I can't deal with confrontation." "I don't know" means please do the dirty work for me because I don't want to hurt your feelings even more then I already have.”

KnowsWantMeanI CanFeelingsHurtDealsPleaseDirtyConfrontationBecause I CanCowardlyDirty Work
Book:It's Called a Breakup Because It's Broken: The Smart Girl's Break-Up Buddy
Create image

“I didn’t do anything wrong. All I know is I saw two people struggling to get inside these walls and they couldn’t make it. To ignore that because of some stupid rule seemed selfish, cowardly, and…well, stupid. If you want to throw me in jail for trying to save someone’s life, then go ahead. Next time I promise I’ll point at them and laugh, then go eat some of Frypan’s dinner.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWantTryingWellsTwoNextLaughingStruggleSawsStupidWallPromiseDinnerSelfishJailNext TimeI PromiseCowardly
Author:James Dashner
Create image

“There are no brave men and cowardly men in the world, my son. There are only brave men. To be born, to live, to die—that takes courage enough in itself, and more than enough. We are all brave men and we are all afraid, and what the world calls a brave man, he too is brave and afraid like the all rest of us. Only he is brave for five minutes longer.”

MenWorldEnoughDiesBornCourageFiveMinutesSonBraveMy SonFive MinutesCowardlyBrave ManBorn To Live
Book:THE GUNS OF NAVARONE
Create image

“She had asked: What is he? A friend or an enemy? The alethiometer answered: He is a murderer. When she saw the answer, she relaxed at once. He could find food, and show her how to reach Oxford, and those were powers that were useful, but he might still have been untrustworthy or cowardly. A murderer was a worthy companion. She felt as safe with him as she'd done with Iorek Byrnison the armoured bear.”

Has BeensStillsDoneShowsMightFeltAnswersEnemySawsBearsSafeWorthyCompanionRelaxedMurdererCowardlyOxfordUntrustworthy
Book:The subtle knife
Create image

“When I look at him, I don't see the cowardly young man who sold me out to Jeanine Matthews, and i don't hear the excuses he gave afterward. When I look at him, I see the boy who held my hand in the hospital when our mother broke her wrist and told me it would be all right. I see the brother who told me to make my own choices, the night before the Choosing Ceremony. I think of all the remarkable things he is--smart and enthusiastic and observant, quiet and earnest and kind.”

ThinkingMenLooksKindHandsWould BeYoungMotherNightChoicesMy OwnBoysBrotherQuietSmartExcuseBrokeYoung ManRemarkableHospitalsEarnestCeremonyEnthusiasticCowardlyWristsMatthewObservant
Author:Veronica Roth
Create image

“Non-violence is a very powerful weapon. Most people don't understand the power of non-violence and tend to be amazed by the whole idea. Those who have been involved in bringing about change and see the difference between violence and non-violence are firmly committed to a lifetime of non-violence, not because it is easy or because it is cowardly, but because it is an effective and very powerful way.”

PeopleWayHas BeensIdeasWholeEasyPeaceDifferencesPowerfulViolenceInvolvedWeaponsLifetimeCommittedAmazedVery PowerfulNon ViolenceCowardlyPowerful Weapons
Author:Cesar Chavez
Create image

“If you go to the city of Washington, and you examine the pages of the Congressional Directory, you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers and cowardly politicians, members of Congress, and misrepresentatives of the masses - you will find that almost all of them claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad that I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.”

IfsWould BePoliticsTermCitiesPoliticianMembersMassClaimsCongressLawyerGladCorporationsAshamedDistinctionRepresentativesGlowingRisenCowardlyLabor UnionEminence
Author:Eugene V. Debs
Create image

“I am beginning with the young. We older ones are used up. Yes, we are old already. We are rotten to the marrow. We have no unrestrained instincts left. We are cowardly and sentimental. We are bearing the burden of a humiliating past, and have in our blood the dull recollection of serfdom and servility. But my magnificent youngsters! Are there finer ones anywhere in the world? Look at these young men and boys! What material! With them, I can make a new world.”

MenWorldLooksI CanPastYoungUsedLeftNationsBoysBloodMaterialsInstinctBurdenYoung ManDullNew WorldMagnificentSentimentalRottenRecollectionCowardlyYoungstersHumiliatingMarrowServility
Author:Adolf Hitler
Create image