“It is true that so far as wealth gives time for ideal ends and exercise to ideal energies, wealth is better than poverty and ought to be chosen. But wealth does this in only a portion of the actual cases. Elsewhere the desire to gain wealth and the fear to lose it are our chief breeders of cowardice and propagators of corruption. There must be thousands of conjunctures in which a wealth-bound man must be a slave, whilst a man for whom poverty has no terrors becomes a freeman.” MenGivingDoeEndsDesireEnergyLosesWealthPovertyCasesOughtExerciseGainsIdealsSlaveBoundsTerrorCorruptionChosenChiefsPortionsCowardiceElsewhereBe A SlaveFreemanBreeders Book:The Varieties of Religious Experience Source: The Varieties of Religious Experience
“We do not choose to be born.We do not--most of us, choose to die, or the times or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live--Courageously or in cowardice, Honorably or dishonorably, With purpose or adrift. We decide what is important and what is trivial. What makes us significant is what we DO, Or REFUSE TO DO. WE DECIDE and WE CHOOSE--and so we give definition to our lives.” GivingImportantPurposeDiesBornOur LivesConditionsDefinitionsRefuseSignificantRealmsCowardiceAdrift Author:Joseph Epstein
“I wonder if it isn't just cowardice instead of generosity that makes us give tips.” IfsGivingWonderCharityGenerosityCowardice Author:Will Rogers