Quotes about Cowards to Help You Track Yourself and Be Brave

Life is a journey, and we all feel cowardly at some point. But this lack of bravery can be a roadblock to progress and stop us from taking action. Let's dive into some 83 coward quotes to learn from.

According to Mike Staver, the author of "Leadership Isn't for Cowards," rationalizations often stem from fear. This unpleasant emotion often makes people tend to disregard both their intuition and logic when making decisions.

Additionally, cowardice can stunt personal growth and lead to negative behaviors such as pretending, ignorance, and procrastination. We may use excuses like "I'm not ready" to hide our fear of failure or shame, but it is crucial to face these fears head-on.

We can increase our confidence and bravery by taking small, manageable steps toward conquering our fears. Get inspired and discover 83 reasons why stepping outside of your comfort zone is vital by reading these quotes.

Edith Piaf's quote: "I'd like to see one person – just one – who would own up to having been a coward." | Image: AmoDays

Quotes About Cowards

"Coward: One who, in a perilous emergency, thinks with his legs." — Ambrose Bierce

"Falsehood is cowardice, the truth courage." — Hosea Ballou

"Cowards can never be moral." — Mahatma Gandhi

"Optimism and self-pity are the positive and negative poles of modern cowardice." — Cyril Connolly, "The Unquiet Grave"

Charles Duhigg's quote: "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." | Image: AmoDays

"Cowardice is the mother of cruelty." — Michel de Montaigne

"Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice." ― Ayaan Hirsi Ali

"Patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it's cowardice." — George Jackson

"Courage is often lack of insight, whereas cowardice in many cases is based on good information." — Peter Ustinov

Umberto Eco's quote: "The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else." | Image: AmoDays

"None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear." — Bertrand Russell

"Cowards make the best torturers. Cowards understand fear and they can use it." ― Mark Lawrence

"I am actually a terrible coward. Fear is a constant fact of my life." — Trevor McDonald

"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave." — Mahatma Gandhi

Albert Camus' quote: "He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool." | Image: AmoDays

"The greatest braggarts are usually the biggest cowards." — Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"When desperate ills demand a speedy cure, Distrust is cowardice, and prudence folly." — Samuel Johnson

"It was always himself that the coward abandoned first. After this all other betrayals came easily." — Cormac McCarthy, "All The Pretty Horses"

"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

Charles Dickens’s quote: "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." | Image: AmoDays

"It is the coward who fawns upon those above him. It is the coward who is insolent whenever he dares be so." — Junius

"Haters and bullies are always cowards, you know. They like to pick on little guys." — Scylar Tyberius

"Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination." — Ernest Hemingway, "Men at War: The Best War Stories of All Time"

"The coward only threatens when he is safe." — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Martin Van Creveld’s quote: "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." | Image: AmoDays

"Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated." ― George Bernard Shaw

"The tyranny of some is possible only through the cowardice of others." — Jose Rizal

"Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse." — Oliver Goldsmith

"The coward's weapon, poison." — John Fletcher

John Fletcher’s quote: "The coward's weapon, poison." | Image: AmoDays

"Fear of ridicule begets the worst cowardice." ― André Gide

Quotes about Cowardice and Courage

"Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk." — Margaret Chase Smith

"It is the fear of being called a coward that makes most men courageous in a crisis; but real courage, which is rare, consists in doing what you know is right, regardless of what men may call you." — Sydney Harris Strictly Personal

"When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion." — Eric Hoffer

"Despair gives courage to a coward." — Thomas Fuller

Gene Hackman’s quote: "The difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways." | Image: AmoDays

"A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a shortcut to meet it." ― J.R.R. Tolkien

"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

"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

"The difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways." — Gene Hackman

Thomas Fuller’s quote: "Despair gives courage to a coward." | Image: AmoDays

"A coward meets his fate in his own hideout." — Jorge Salvador Lara

"If you leave without a fight, you will get the name of a coward." ― Rajinikanth

"That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward." ― Edgar Allan Poe

"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

Spike Milligan’s quote: "I'm a hero with coward's legs." | Image: AmoDays

"To be ones self and unafraid whether right or wrong is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity." — Irving Wallace

"The most mortifying infirmity in human nature, to feel in ourselves, or to contemplate in another, is, perhaps, cowardice." — Charles Lamb, "Last Essays of Elia"

"A team is where a boy can prove his courage on his own. A gang is where a coward goes to hide." — Mickey Mantle

"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

Mark Twain's "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar in Following the Equator (1897)" quote: "There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice." | Image: AmoDays

"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

"Complete courage and absolute cowardice are extremes that very few men fall into. The vast middle space contains all the intermediate kinds and degrees of courage; and these differ as much from one another as men's faces or their humors do." — François de La Rochefoucauld Maximes

"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

Quotes about Cowards Filled with Contradiction and Deep Thoughts

"I'm a hero with coward's legs." — Spike Milligan

"I guess you could say I'm cautious, or a coward." — Namie Amuro

"The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else." — Umberto Eco

"When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred." — Niccolo Machiavelli

Dolores Ibarruri’s quote: "It is better to be the widow of a hero than the wife of a coward. | Image: AmoDays

"We have sworn, and not lightly. This oath we will keep. We are threatened with many evils, and treason not least; but one thing is not said: that we shall suffer from cowardice, from cravens or the fear of cravens. Therefore I say that we will go on, and this doom I add: the deeds that we shall do shall be the matter of song until the last days of Arda." — J. R. R. Tolkien

"Cowardice and courage are never without a measure of affectation. Nor is love. Feelings are never true. They play with their mirrors." — Jean Baudrillard, "Cool Memories"

"To be called a coward, I don't think that's fair." — Rodney Alexander

"Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood." — George S. Patton

Michel de Montaigne’s quote: "Cowardice is the mother of cruelty." | Image: AmoDays

"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

"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

"'Brave' is very specific and extremely personal. It can't be judged by people on the outside. Just can't. Sometimes brave means letting everyone else think you're a coward. Sometimes brave is letting everyone else down but yourself." — Glennon Doyle Melton

"A coward is much more exposed to quarrels than a man of spirit." — Thomas Jefferson

Scylar Tyberius’ quote: "Haters and bullies are always cowards, you know. They like to pick on little guys." | Image: AmoDays

"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

"If I'm scared and I'm a coward, why do you guys want to see me fight?" — Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

"It is better to be the widow of a hero than the wife of a coward." — Dolores Ibarruri

"He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool." — Albert Camus

André Gide’s quote: "Fear of ridicule begets the worst cowardice." | Image: AmoDays

"The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow." — Jim Hightower

"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

"I'd like to see one person – just one – who would own up to having been a coward." — Edith Piaf

"Bullies are always to be found where there are cowards." — Mahatma Gandhi

Eric Hoffer’s quote: "When cowardice is made respectable, its followers are without number both from among the weak and the strong; it easily becomes a fashion." | Image: AmoDays

"There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice." — Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar in Following the Equator (1897)"

"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

"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

"There is a point at which the law becomes immoral and unethical. That point is reached when it becomes a cloak for the cowardice that dares not stand up against blatant violations of justice." — Kurt Huber

Irving Wallace’s quote: "To be ones self and unafraid whether right or wrong is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity." | Image: AmoDays

Overcoming our inner fears is the key to unlocking our full potential and living life fully. Don't let cowardice hold you back and keep you from experiencing all life offers.

Embrace bravery and the moments of calmness and clarity that come with it. You have the strength to overcome even the most challenging problems and reach for the stars.

Stand tall and be fearless, no matter the uncertainty and insecurity that may come your way. And if you ever need a little extra encouragement, these 37 quotes are here to remind you that it's time to take action and live life with courage.