The truly brave, When they behold the brave oppressed with odds, Are touched with a desire to shield and save:— A mixture of wild beasts and demi-gods Are they—now furious as the sweeping wave, Now moved with pity; even as sometimes nods The rugged tree unto the summer wind, Compassion breathes along the savage mind.
It may often be noticed, the less virtuous people are, the more they shrink away from the slightest whiff of the odour of un-sanctity. The good are ever the most charitable, the pure are the most brave.
Dinah Craik, A Woman's Thoughts About Women (1858), Ch. 11.
Fortem Posce Animum Pray for God to give you a Brave Soul
Crampton Family Motto (1248)
The god-like hero sate On his imperial throne: His valiant peers were placed around, Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound (So should desert in arms be crowned). The lovely Thais, by his side, Sate like a blooming Eastern bride In flower of youth and beauty's pride. Happy, happy, happy pair! None but the brave, None but the brave, None but the brave deserve the fair.
Quocirca vivite fortes, fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus
So live, my boys, as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.
Horace, Book II, Satire II, Line 135-136 (trans. E. C. Wickham)
Some of the bravest political work in this country and around the world has happened because people often too young to grasp their own mortality stick their necks out. The job of the rest of us is to rise to the occasion of their bravery. The young inspire the middle-aged and old with courage, and they project our vision where it belongs, into the future.
Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz “Nine Suggestions For Radicals, or Lessons From the Gulf War” in The Issue is Power: Essays on Women, Jews, Violence and Resistance (1992)
Rewa was brave. At least, she was thick-witted enough to be able to ignore personal danger to a great extent.
Arya watched them die and said nothing. What good did it do you to be brave? ... There were no brave people on that march, only scared and hungry ones.
Owen Meredith (Lord Lytton), Lucile (1860), Part II, Canto VI, Stanza 11.
I'm not a brave man. My self-image is of a very small and weak person. In point of fact, I'm almost six feet, and solidly built. But I was a late bloomer. I spent those formative early high-school years as a pudgy little science whimp. I'm still scared of big men with deep voices.
Come one, come all! this rock shall fly From its firm base as soon as I.
Walter Scott, Lady of the Lake (1810), Canto V, Stanza 10.
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.
How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, By all their country's wishes blest!
William Collins, Ode written in 1746. Authorship disputed. Found in the Oratorio, Alfred the Great, altered from Alfred, a Masque, presented Aug. 1, 1740. Written by Thompson and Mallet.
The brave man seeks not popular applause, Nor, overpower'd with arms, deserts his cause; Unsham'd, though foil'd, he does the best he can, Force is of brutes, but honor is of man.
John Dryden, Palamon and Arcite, Book III, line 2,015. (1700)
Then rush'd to meet the insulting foe: They took the spear, but left the shield.
Philip Freneau, To the Memory of the Brave Americans who fell at Eutaw Springs. (See also Scott—Marmion. Introd. to Canto III).
The brave Love mercy, and delight to save.
John Gay, Fable, The Lion, Tiger and Traveller, line 33.
Without a sign his sword the brave man draws, And asks no omen but his country's cause.
O friends, be men; so act that none may feel Ashamed to meet the eyes of other men. Think each one of his children and his wife, His home, his parents, living yet or dead. For them, the absent ones, I supplicate, And bid you rally here, and scorn to fly.
Homer, The Iliad, Book XV, line 843. Bryant's translation.
Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona Multi; sed omnes illacrimabiles Urguentur ignotique longa Nocte, carent quia vate sacro.
Many brave men lived before Agamemnon; but, all unwept and unknown, are lost in the distant night, since they are without a divine poet (to chronicle their deeds).
Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), X, 284 and 458. Same phrase or idea found in Cicero, De Finibus, III. 4. and Tusc., II. 4. Claudian, Ad Probin. XLIII. 9. Ennius, Annales, V. 262. Livy, Book IV. 37;, Book VII. 29;, Book XXXIV. 37. Menander, In Stobæus Flor., VII, p. 206. Ed. 1709. Ovid, Metamorphoses. X. 11. 27. Pliny the Younger, Epistles, VI. 16. Tacitus, Annales, IV. 17.