“It is thus that mutual cowardice keeps us in peace. Were one half of mankind brave and one cowards, the brave would be always beating the cowards. Were all brave, they would lead a very uneasy life; all would be continually fighting; but being all cowards, we go on very well.” WellsWould BeFightingHalfMankindGoes OnBraveMutualCowardCowardiceUneasyOne HalfEasy Life Author:Samuel Johnson
“I am not here to pass civilities or compliments with you, but on other business. I have stood your meanness as long as I intend to. You have played the part of a damned scoundrel, and are a coward, and if you were any part of a man I would slap your jaws and force you to resent it. You may as well not issue any more orders to me, for I will not obey them... and as I say to you that if you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path it will be at the peril of your life.” IfsMenTryingWellsMayLongWarOrderForceEnemyPathIssuesSpeechCrossesObedienceOpponentsCivil WarCowardComplimentCowardiceInterfereThreateningFoePerilCivilityResentSlapMeannessScoundrelsProclamation Author:Nathan Bedford Forrest
“There were times when I asked myself whether I was being principled or simply a coward.... I was wrapped in the cocoon of tennis early in life, mainly by blacks like my most powerful mentor, Dr. Robert Walter Johnson of Lynchburg, Virginia. They insisted that I be unfailingly polite on the court, unfalteringly calm and detached, so that whites could never accuse me of meanness. I learned well. I look at photographs of the skinny, frail, little black boy that I was in the early 1950s, and I see that I was my tennis racquet and my tennis racquet was me. It was my rod and my staff.” WellsLooksLittlesBlackPowerfulBoysCourtPhotographCalmTennisMost PowerfulCowardMentorStaffDrsPoliteSkinnyJohnsonVirginiaDetachedMeannessFrailCocoonsPrincipledBlack Boy Author:Arthur Ashe