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C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.

Valor

Valor consists in the power of self-recovery.

Emerson.

Discretion, the best part of valor.

Beaumont and Fletcher.

Valor is abased by too much loftiness.

Sir P. Sidney.

Let me die facing the enemy.

Bayard.

There is always safety in valor.

Emerson.

A sad, wise valor is the brave complexion.

George Herbert.

Valor is the contempt of death and pain.

Tacitus.

Distressed valor challenges great respect, even from enemies.

Plutarch.

My valor is certainly going! it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out, as it were, at the palms of my hands.

Sheridan.

The mean of true valor lies between the extremes of cowardice and rashness.

Cervantes.

Valor is stability, not of arms and of legs, but of courage and the soul.

Montaigne.

The Spartans do not inquire how many the enemy are, but where they are.

Agis II.

True valor is like honesty; it enters into all that a man sees and does.

H. W. Shaw.

The truly valiant dare everything but doing anybody an injury.

Sir Philip Sidney.

I have heard of some kind of men that put quarrels purposely on others, to taste their valor.

Shakespeare.

Fear to do base, unworthy things is valor; if they be done to us, to suffer them is valor, too.

Ben Jonson.

You may as well say that’s a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.

Shakespeare.

How strangely high endeavors may be blessed, where piety and valor jointly go.

Dryden.

  • In vain doth valour bleed,
  • While Avarice and Rapine share the land.
  • Milton.

    No man can answer for his own valor or courage till he has been in danger.

    La Rochefoucauld.

    It is held that valor is the chiefest virtue, and most dignifies the haver.

    Shakespeare.

    It is said of untrue valor that some men’s valors are in the eyes of them that look on.

    Bacon.

  • When valour preys on reason,
  • It eats the sword it fights with.
  • Shakespeare.

    Valor would cease to be a virtue, if there were no injustice.

    Agesilaus.

    It is a brave act of valor to contemn death; but where life is more terrible than death, it is then the truest valor to dare to live.

    Sir Thomas Browne.

    Glorious men are the scorn of wise men, the admiration of fools, the idols of parasites, and the slaves of their own vaunts.

    Bacon.

    Noble Pity held his hand awhile, and to their choice gave space whether they would prove his valor or his grace.

    Waller.

    What’s brave, what’s noble, let’s do it after the high Roman fashion, and make death proud to take us.

    Shakespeare.

    Perfect valor is to do unwitnessed what we should be capable of doing before all the world.

    La Rochefoucauld.

    True valor lies in the mind, the never-yielding purpose, nor owns the blind award of giddy fortune.

    Thomson.

    To that dauntless temper of his mind he hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor to act in safety.

    Shakespeare.

    The fight of Balaklava—that was a feat of chivalry, fiery with consummate courage and bright with flashing valor.

    Beaconsfield.

    He who has resolved to conquer or die is seldom conquered; such noble despair perishes with difficulty.

    Corneille.

    There is no love-broker in the world can more prevail in man’s commendation with woman than report of valor.

    Shakespeare.

  • ’Tis much he dares;
  • And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
  • He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
  • To act in safety.
  • Shakespeare.

  • But dream not helm and harness
  • The sign of valor true;
  • Peace hath higher tests of manhood
  • Than battle ever knew.
  • Whittier.

  • What valour were it, when a cur doth grin,
  • For one to thrust his hand between his teeth,
  • When he might spurn him with his foot, away?
  • Shakespeare.

    I love the man that is modestly valiant; that stirs not till he most needs, and then to purpose. A continued patience I commend not.

    Feltham.

    Whatever comes out of despair cannot bear the title of valor, which should be lifted up to such a height that holding all things under itself, it should be able to maintain its greatness, even in the midst of miseries.

    Sir P. Sidney.

    Those who believe that the praises which arise from valor are superior to those which proceed from any other virtues have not considered.

    Dryden.

    Valor gives awe, and promises protection to those who want heart or strength to defend themselves. This makes the authority of men among women, and that of a master buck in a numerous herd.

    Sir W. Temple.

  • A valiant man
  • Ought not to undergo, or tempt a danger,
  • But worthily, and by selected ways.
  • He undertakes with reason, not by chance.
  • His valor is the salt t’ his other virtues,
  • They’re all unseason’d without it.
  • Ben Jonson.

    The love of glory, the fear of shame, the design of making a fortune, the desire of rendering life easy and agreeable, and the humor of pulling down other people, are often the causes of that valor so celebrated among men.

    La Rochefoucauld.

  • He’s truly valiant that can wisely suffer
  • The worst that man can breathe and make his wrongs
  • His outsides, to wear them like his raiment, carelessly;
  • And ne’er prefer his injuries to his heart,
  • To bring it into danger.
  • Shakespeare.

    As a rule, he fights well who has wrongs to redress; but vastly better fights he who, with wrongs as a spur, has also steadily before him a glorious result in prospect—a result in which he can discern balm for wounds, compensation for valor, remembrance and gratitude in the event of death.

    Lew Wallace.