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William Shakespeare on Courage

1564–1616 England

← All quotes by William Shakespeare

13 quotes

Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.

Julius Caesar (1599)

I dare do all that may become a man:
Who dares do more, is none.

Macbeth (1605)

Muster your wits: stand in your own defence;
Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence.

He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age, doing, in the figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion.

By how much unexpected, by so much
We must awake endeavour for defence;
For courage mounteth with occasion.

King John (1598)

The thing of courage
As rous'd with rage doth sympathise,
And, with an accent tun'd in self-same key,
Retorts to chiding fortune.

Troilus and Cressida (1602)

O, the blood more stirs
To rouse a lion than to start a hare!

What's brave, what's noble,
Let's do it after the high Roman fashion,
And make death proud to take us.

Why, courage then! what cannot be avoided
'Twere childish weakness to lament or fear.

Advance our standards, set upon our foes Our ancient world of courage fair St. George Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons.

We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail.

Macbeth (1605)

You must not think
That we are made of stuff so fat and dull
That we can let our beard be shook with danger
And think it pastime.

He did look far
Into the service of the time, and was
Discipled of the bravest; he lasted long;
But on us both did haggish age steal on
And wore us out of act.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: William Shakespeare (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.