courage

You would not deny, then, that COURAGE and wisdom are also parts of virtue ? PROTAGORAS

Then, I said, no other part of virtue is like knowledge, or like justice, or like COURAGE, or like temperance, or like holiness ? PROTAGORAS

If I am not mistaken the question was this : Are wisdom and temperance and COURAGE and justice and holiness five names of the same thing ? PROTAGORAS

I answer, Socrates, he said, that all these qualities are parts of virtue, and that four out of the five are to some extent similar, and that the fifth of them, which is COURAGE, is very different from the other four, as I prove in this way : You may observe that many men are utterly unrighteous, unholy, intemperate, ignorant, who are nevertheless remarkable for their COURAGE. PROTAGORAS

In that case, he replied, COURAGE would be a base thing, for the men of whom we are speaking are surely madmen. PROTAGORAS

And those, I said, who are thus confident without knowledge are really not courageous, but mad ; and in that case the wisest are also the most confident, and being the most confident are also the bravest, and upon that view again wisdom will be COURAGE. PROTAGORAS

When you asked me, I certainly did say that the courageous are the confident ; but I was never asked whether the confident are the courageous ; if you had asked me, I should have answered “Not all of them” : and what I did answer you have not proved to be false, although you proceeded to show that those who have knowledge are more courageous than they were before they had knowledge, and more courageous than others who have no knowledge, and were then led on to think that COURAGE is the same as wisdom. PROTAGORAS

And in like manner I say of confidence and COURAGE, that they are not the same ; and I argue that the courageous are confident, but not all the confident courageous. PROTAGORAS

For confidence may be given to men by art, and also, like ability, by madness and rage ; but COURAGE comes to them from nature and the healthy state of the soul. PROTAGORAS

I believe, I said, that they may be of use in helping us to discover how COURAGE is related to the other parts of virtue. PROTAGORAS

To this, however, I am not referring, but to the assertion which he afterwards made that of the five virtues four were nearly akin to each other, but that the fifth, which was COURAGE, differed greatly from the others. PROTAGORAS

He said : You will find, Socrates, that some of the most impious, and unrighteous, and intemperate, and ignorant of men are among the most courageous ; which proves that COURAGE is very different from the other parts of virtue. PROTAGORAS

Then as to the motive from which the cowards act, do you call it cowardice or COURAGE ? PROTAGORAS

But surely COURAGE, I said, is opposed to cowardice ? PROTAGORAS

And the knowledge of that which is and is not dangerous is COURAGE, and is opposed to the ignorance of these things ? PROTAGORAS

For if the argument had a human voice, that voice would be heard laughing at us and saying : “Protagoras and Socrates, you are strange beings ; there are you, Socrates, who were saying that virtue cannot be taught, contradicting yourself now by your attempt to prove that all things are knowledge, including justice, and temperance, and COURAGE, — which tends to show that virtue can certainly be taught ; for if virtue were other than knowledge, as Protagoras attempted to prove, then clearly virtue cannot be taught ; but if virtue is entirely knowledge, as you are seeking to show, then I cannot but suppose that virtue is capable of being taught. PROTAGORAS

And if those among you who are said to be superior in wisdom and COURAGE, and any other virtue, demean themselves in this way, how shameful is their conduct ! APOLOGY

And, indeed, I am ashamed not only of you, but of us who are your friends, when I reflect that this entire business of yours will be attributed to our want of COURAGE. CRITO

Socrates : And such a rescue you call noble, in respect of the endeavor to save those whom it was one’s duty to save ; and this is COURAGE, is it not ? ALCIBIADES I

[115c] Socrates : And is not the COURAGE one thing, and the death another ? ALCIBIADES I

Socrates : Then see if, inasmuch as it is noble, it is also good ; for in the present case you were admitting that the rescue was noble in respect of its COURAGE : now consider this very thing, COURAGE, and say whether it is good or bad. ALCIBIADES I

Socrates : Then what do you say of COURAGE ? ALCIBIADES I

Socrates : And life and COURAGE are the extreme opposites of death and cowardice ? ALCIBIADES I

Socrates : So you reckon COURAGE among the best things, and death among the worst. ALCIBIADES I

Socrates : Then the rescue of one’s friends in battle, inasmuch as it is noble in respect of the working of good by COURAGE, you have termed noble ? ALCIBIADES I

Should you choose, again, to look at the temperance and orderliness, the facility and placidity, the magnanimity and discipline, the COURAGE and endurance, and the toil-loving, success-loving, honor-loving spirit of the Spartans, you would count yourself but a child[122d] in all these things. ALCIBIADES I

And is not that generally thought to be COURAGE ? LACHES

Then, Laches, suppose that we first set about determining the nature of COURAGE, and in the second place proceed to enquire how the young men may attain this quality by the help of studies and pursuits. LACHES

Tell me, if you can, what is COURAGE. LACHES

Indeed, Socrates, I see no difficulty in answering ; he is a man of COURAGE who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy ; there can be no mistake about that. LACHES

For I meant to ask you not only about the COURAGE of heavy-armed soldiers, but about the COURAGE of cavalry and every other style of soldier ; and not only who are courageous in war, but who are courageous in perils by sea, and who in disease, or in poverty, or again in politics, are courageous ; and not only who are courageous against pain or fear, but mighty to contend against desires and pleasures, either fixed in their rank or turning upon their enemy. LACHES

There is this sort of COURAGE — is there not, Laches ? LACHES

And all these are courageous, but some have COURAGE in pleasures, and some in pains : some in desires, and some in fears, and some are cowards under the same conditions, as I should imagine. LACHES

Now I was asking about COURAGE and cowardice in general. LACHES

And I will begin with COURAGE, and once more ask, What is that common quality, which is the same in all these cases, and which is called COURAGE ? LACHES

And now, Laches, do you try and tell me in like manner, What is that common quality which is called COURAGE, and which includes all the various uses of the term when applied both to pleasure and pain, and in all the cases to which I was just now referring ? LACHES

I should say that COURAGE is a sort of endurance of the soul, if I am to speak of the universal nature which pervades them all. LACHES

And yet I cannot say that every kind of endurance is, in my opinion, to be deemed COURAGE. LACHES

Hear my reason : I am sure, Laches, that you would consider COURAGE to be a very noble quality. LACHES

Then you would not admit that sort of endurance to be COURAGE — for it is not noble, but COURAGE is noble ? LACHES

Then, according to you, only the wise endurance is COURAGE ? LACHES

Or, for example, if a man is a physician, and his son, or some patient of his, has inflammation of the lungs, and begs that he may be allowed to eat or drink something, and the other is firm and refuses ; is that COURAGE ? LACHES

No ; that is not COURAGE at all, any more than the last. LACHES

Whereas COURAGE was acknowledged to be a noble quality. LACHES

And now on the contrary we are saying that the foolish endurance, which was before held in dishonour, is COURAGE. LACHES

Any one would say that we had COURAGE who saw us in action, but not, I imagine, he who heard us talking about COURAGE just now. LACHES

We too must endure and persevere in the enquiry, and then COURAGE will not laugh at our faintheartedness in searching for COURAGE ; which after all may, very likely, be endurance. LACHES

For I fancy that I do know the nature of COURAGE ; but, somehow or other, she has slipped away from me, and I cannot get hold of her and tell her nature. LACHES

Come then, Nicias, and do what you can to help your friends, who are tossing on the waves of argument, and at the last gasp : you see our extremity, and may save us and also settle your own opinion, if you will tell us what you think about COURAGE. LACHES

I have been thinking, Socrates, that you and Laches are not defining COURAGE in the right way ; for you have forgotten an excellent saying which I have heard from your own lips. LACHES

I think that I understand him ; and he appears to me to mean that COURAGE is a sort of wisdom. LACHES

I mean to say, Laches, that COURAGE is the knowledge of that which inspires fear or confidence in war, or in anything. LACHES

Why, surely COURAGE is one thing, and wisdom another. LACHES

Then tell me, Nicias, or rather tell us, for Laches and I are partners in the argument : Do you mean to affirm that COURAGE is the knowledge of the grounds of hope and fear ? LACHES

And this I say not as a joke, but because I think that he who assents to your doctrine, that COURAGE is the knowledge of the grounds of fear and hope, cannot allow that any wild beast is courageous, unless he admits that a lion, or a leopard, or perhaps a boar, or any other animal, has such a degree of wisdom that he knows things which but a few human beings ever know by reason of their difficulty. LACHES

He who takes your view of COURAGE must affirm that a lion, and a stag, and a bull, and a monkey, have equally little pretensions to COURAGE. LACHES

And I hope, Nicias, that you will tell us whether these animals, which we all admit to be courageous, are really wiser than mankind ; or whether you will have the boldness, in the face of universal opinion, to deny their COURAGE. LACHES

There is a difference, to my way of thinking, between fearlessness and COURAGE. LACHES

I am of opinion that thoughtful COURAGE is a quality possessed by very few, but that rashness and boldness, and fearlessness, which has no forethought, are very common qualities possessed by many men, many women, many children, many animals. LACHES

Behold, Socrates, how admirably, as he thinks, he dresses himself out in words, while seeking to deprive of the honour of COURAGE those whom all the world acknowledges to be courageous. LACHES

And I think that the view which is implied in Nicias’ definition of COURAGE is worthy of examination. LACHES

You remember that we originally considered COURAGE to be a part of virtue. LACHES

For I say that justice, temperance, and the like, are all of them parts of virtue as well as COURAGE. LACHES

And the knowledge of these things you call COURAGE ? LACHES

And COURAGE, my friend, is, as you say, a knowledge of the fearful and of the hopeful ? LACHES

Then COURAGE is not the science which is concerned with the fearful and hopeful, for they are future only ; COURAGE, like the other sciences, is concerned not only with good and evil of the future, but of the present and past, and of any time ? LACHES

Then the answer which you have given, Nicias, includes only a third part of COURAGE ; but our question extended to the whole nature of COURAGE : and according to your view, that is, according to your present view, COURAGE is not only the knowledge of the hopeful and the fearful, but seems to include nearly every good and evil without reference to time. LACHES

But then, Nicias, COURAGE, according to this new definition of yours, instead of being a part of virtue only, will be all virtue ? LACHES

But we were saying that COURAGE is one of the parts of virtue ? LACHES

Then, Nicias, we have not discovered what COURAGE is. LACHES

I perceive, Laches, that you think nothing of having displayed your ignorance of the nature of COURAGE, but you look only to see whether I have not made a similar display ; and if we are both equally ignorant of the things which a man who is good for anything should know, that, I suppose, will be of no consequence. LACHES

For a time he hesitated and had not the COURAGE to come alone ; but first of all, his friend Menexenus, leaving his play, entered the Palaestra from the court, and when he saw Ctesippus and myself, was going to take a seat by us ; and then Lysis, seeing him, followed, and sat down by his side ; and the other boys joined. LYSIS

On the contrary, I plainly assert, that he who would truly live ought to allow his desires to wax to the uttermost, and not to chastise them ; but when they have grown to their greatest he should have COURAGE and intelligence to minister to them and to satisfy all his longings. GORGIAS

And were you not saying just now, that some COURAGE implied knowledge ? GORGIAS

And you were speaking of COURAGE and knowledge as two things different from one another ? GORGIAS

And would you say that COURAGE differed from pleasure ? GORGIAS

Well, then, let us remember that Callicles, the Acharnian, says that pleasure and good are the same ; but that knowledge and COURAGE are not the same, either with one another, or with the good. GORGIAS

It is by realizing this position of affairs that we can appreciate what manner of men those were, in point of valor, who awaited the onset of the barbarians’ power, chastised all Asia’s insolent pride, and were the first to rear trophies of victory over the barbarians ; whereby they pointed the way to the others and taught them to know that the Persian power was not invincible, since there is no multitude of men or money but COURAGE conquers it. [ MENEXENUS

240e] I, therefore, affirm that those men were the begetters not merely of our bodies but of our freedom also, and the freedom of all the dwellers in this continent ; for it was the example of that exploit of theirs which fired the Greeks with COURAGE to risk the later battles in the cause of salvation, learning their lesson from the men of Marathon. MENEXENUS

COURAGE and temperance and wisdom and magnanimity are virtues ; and there are many others. MENO

Next, let us consider the goods of the soul : they are temperance, justice, COURAGE, quickness of apprehension, memory, magnanimity, and the like ? MENO

And such of these as are not knowledge, but of another sort, are sometimes profitable and sometimes hurtful ; as, for example, COURAGE wanting prudence, which is only a sort of confidence ? MENO

When a man has no sense he is harmed by COURAGE, but when he has sense he is profited ? MENO

The youth, overpowered by the question blushed, and in his perplexity looked at me for help ; and I, knowing that he was disconcerted, said : Take COURAGE, Cleinias, and answer like a man whichever you think ; for my belief is that you will derive the greatest benefit from their questions. EUTHYDEMUS

What do you say of temperance, justice, COURAGE : do you not verily and indeed think, Cleinias, that we shall be more right in ranking them as goods than in not ranking them as goods ? EUTHYDEMUS

I do not think that we have as yet discussed COURAGE (andreia), — injustice (adikia), which is obviously nothing more than a hindrance to the penetrating principle (diaiontos), need not be considered. CRATYLUS

Well, then, the name of andreia seems to imply a battle ; — this battle is in the world of existence, and according to the doctrine of flux is only the counterflux (enantia rhon) : if you extract the d from andreia, the name at once signifies the thing, and you may clearly understand that andreia is not the stream opposed to every stream, but only to that which is contrary to justice, for otherwise COURAGE would not have been praised. CRATYLUS

Then fear not, but have the COURAGE to admit that one name may be correctly and another incorrectly given ; and do not insist that the name shall be exactly the same with the thing ; but allow the occasional substitution of a wrong letter, and if of a letter also of a noun in a sentence, and if of a noun in a sentence also of a sentence which is not appropriate to the matter, and acknowledge that the thing may be named, and described, so long as the general character of the thing which you are describing is retained ; and this, as you will remember, was remarked CRATYLUS

That COURAGE which, as Homer says, the god breathes into the souls of some heroes, Love of his own nature infuses into the lover. SYMPOSIUM

I should be strangely forgetful, Agathon, replied Socrates, of the COURAGE and magnanimity which you showed when your own compositions were about to be exhibited, and you came upon the stage with the actors and faced the vast theatre altogether undismayed, if I thought that your nerves could be fluttered at a small party of friends. SYMPOSIUM

As to COURAGE, even the God of War is no match for him ; he is the captive and Love is the lord, for love, the love of Aphrodite, masters him, as the tale runs ; and the master is stronger than the servant. SYMPOSIUM

Of his COURAGE and justice and temperance I have spoken, but I have yet to speak of his wisdom — and according to the measure of my ability I must try to do my best. SYMPOSIUM

I will also tell, if you please — and indeed I am bound to tell of his COURAGE in battle ; for who but he saved my life ? SYMPOSIUM

There is a virtue, Simmias, which is named COURAGE. PHAEDO

For the COURAGE and temperance of other men, if you will consider them, are really a contradiction. PHAEDO

and that is wisdom ; and only in exchange for this, and in company with this, is anything truly bought or sold, whether COURAGE or temperance or justice. PHAEDO

But the virtue which is made up of these goods, when they are severed from wisdom and exchanged with one another, is a shadow of virtue only, nor is there any freedom or health or truth in her ; but in the true exchange there is a purging away of all these things, and temperance, and justice, and COURAGE, and wisdom herself are a purgation of them. PHAEDO

I like your COURAGE, he said, in reminding us of this. PHAEDO

Wherefore, I say, let a man be of good cheer about his soul, who has cast away the pleasures and ornaments of the body as alien to him, and rather hurtful in their effects, and has followed after the pleasures of knowledge in this life ; who has adorned the soul in her own proper jewels, which are temperance, and justice, and COURAGE, and nobility, and truth — in these arrayed she is ready to go on her journey to the world below, when her time comes. PHAEDO

The hour of payment arrives, and now he is the servant of another master ; instead of love and infatuation, wisdom and temperance are his bosom’s lords ; but the beloved has not discovered the change which has taken place in him, when he asks for a return and recalls to his recollection former sayings and doings ; he believes himself to be speaking to the same person, and the other, not having the COURAGE to confess the truth, and not knowing how to fulfil the oaths and promises which he made when under the dominion of folly, and having now grown wise and temperate, does not want to do as he did or to be as he was before. PHAEDRUS

falls backwards in adoration, and by his fall is compelled to pull back the reins with such violence as to bring both the steeds on their haunches, the one willing and unresisting, the unruly one very unwilling ; and when they have gone back a little, the one is overcome with shame and wonder, and his whole soul is bathed in perspiration ; the other, when the pain is over which the bridle and the fall had given him, having with difficulty taken breath, is full of wrath and reproaches, which he heaps upon the charioteer and his fellow-steed, for want of COURAGE and manhood, declaring that they have been false to their agreement and guilty of desertion. PHAEDRUS

Take COURAGE, then, and nobly say what you think that knowledge is. THEAETETUS

Too true, my friend, as I well know ; there is, however, one peculiarity in their case : when they begin to reason in private about their dislike of philosophy, if they have the COURAGE to hear the argument out and do not run away, they grow at last strangely discontented with themselves ; their rhetoric fades away, and they become helpless as children. THEAETETUS

Let me put the matter in another way : I suppose that you would consider COURAGE to be a part of virtue ? STATESMAN

And you would think temperance to be different from COURAGE ; and likewise to be a part of virtue ? STATESMAN

When we praise quickness and energy and acuteness, whether of mind or body or sound, we express our praise of the quality which we admire by one word, and that one word is manliness or COURAGE. STATESMAN

Of all such actions we predicate not COURAGE, but a name indicative of order. STATESMAN

The rest of the citizens, out of whom, if they have education, something noble may be made, and who are capable of being united by the Statesman, the kingly art blends and weaves together ; taking on the one hand those whose natures tend rather to COURAGE, which is the stronger element and may be regarded as the warp, and on the other hand those which incline to order and gentleness, and which are represented in the figure as spun thick and soft after the manner of the woof — these, which are naturally opposed, she seeks to bind and weave together in the following manner : Y. STATESMAN

Because COURAGE, when untempered by the gentler nature during many generations, may at first bloom and strengthen, but at last bursts forth into downright madness. STATESMAN

And then, again, the soul which is over-full of modesty and has no element of COURAGE in many successive generations, is apt to grow too indolent, and at last to become utterly paralyzed and useless. STATESMAN

She was pre-eminent in COURAGE and military skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. TIMAEUS

That part of the inferior soul which is endowed with COURAGE and passion and loves contention they settled nearer the head, midway between the midriff and the neck, in order that it might be under the rule of reason and might join with it in controlling and restraining the desires when they are no longer willing of their own accord to obey the word of command issuing from the citadel. TIMAEUS

Is there not an absurdity in arguing that there is nothing good or noble in the body, or in anything else, but that good is in the soul only, and that the only good of the soul is pleasure ; and that COURAGE or temperance or understanding, or any other good of the soul, is not really a good ? — PHILEBUS

And such an one is far better, as we affirm, than the other in a more difficult kind of war, much in the same degree as justice and temperance and wisdom, when united with COURAGE, are better than COURAGE only ; for a man cannot be faithful and good in civil strife without having all virtue. LAWS

For wisdom is chief and leader of the divine dass of goods, and next follows temperance ; and from the union of these two with COURAGE springs justice, and fourth in the scale of virtue is COURAGE. LAWS

I think that we must begin again as before, and first consider the habit of COURAGE ; and then we will go on and discuss another and then another form of virtue, if you please. LAWS

But how ought we to define COURAGE ? LAWS

But surely the lawgivers of Crete and Lacedaemon have not legislated for a COURAGE which is lame of one leg, able only to meet attacks which come from the left, but impotent against the insidious flatteries which come from the right ? LAWS

Suppose, Cleinias and Megillus, that we consider the virtue which follows next of those which we intended to discuss (for after COURAGE comes temperance), what institutions shall we find relating to temperance, either in Crete or Lacedaemon, which, like your military institutions, differ from those of any ordinary state. LAWS

That is not an easy question to answer ; still I should say that the common meals and gymnastic exercises have been excellently devised for the promotion both of temperance and COURAGE. LAWS

Or does this principle apply to COURAGE only, and must he who would be perfect in valour fight against and overcome his own natural character — since if he be unpractised and inexperienced in such conflicts, he will not be half the man which he might have been — and are we to suppose, that with temperance it is otherwise, and that he who has never fought with the shameless and unrighteous temptations of his pleasures and lusts, and conquered them, in earnest and in play, by word, deed, and act, will still be perfectly temperate ? LAWS

No ; but, if there had been, might not such a draught have been of use to the legislator as a test of COURAGE ? LAWS

Might we not go and say to him, “O legislator, whether you are legislating for the Cretan, or for any other state, would you not like to have a touchstone of the COURAGE and cowardice of your citizens ?” LAWS

Now, let us remember, as we were saying, that there are two things which should be cultivated in the soul : first, the greatest COURAGE ; secondly, the greatest fear — Cle. LAWS

But now, as the habit of COURAGE and fearlessness is to be trained amid fears, let us consider whether the opposite quality is not also to be trained among opposites. LAWS

And therefore the judges must be men of character, for they will require both wisdom and COURAGE ; the true judge must not draw his inspiration from the theatre, nor ought he to be unnerved by the clamour of the many and his own incapacity ; nor again, knowing the truth, ought he through cowardice and unmanliness carelessly to deliver a lying judgment, with the very same lips which have just appealed to the Gods before he judged. LAWS II

When a man has health and wealth and a tyranny which lasts, and when he is preeminent in strength and COURAGE, and has the gift of immortality, and none of the so-called evils which counter-balance these goods, but only the injustice and insolence of his own nature — of such an one you are, I suspect, unwilling to believe that he is miserable rather than happy. LAWS II

Such an one, as we said at first, would be a greater warrior than he of whom Tyrtaeus sings ; and he would honour COURAGE everywhere, but always as the fourth, and not as the first part of virtue, either in individuals or states. LAWS II

When these larger habitations grew up out of the lesser original ones, each of the lesser ones would survive in the larger ; every family would be under the rule of the eldest, and, owing to their separation from one another, would have peculiar customs in things divine and human, which they would have received from their several parents who had educated them ; and these customs would incline them to order, when the parents had the element of order in their nature, and to COURAGE, when they had the element of COURAGE. LAWS III

I suppose that COURAGE is a part of virtue ? LAWS III

And we should say that the temperate life has the elements both of pleasure and pain fewer and smaller and less frequent than the intemperate, and the wise life than the foolish life, and the life of COURAGE than the life of cowardice ; one of each pair exceeding in pleasure and the other in pain, the courageous surpassing the cowardly, and the wise exceeding the foolish. LAWS V

But if fear has such a power we ought to infer from these facts, that every soul which from youth upward has been familiar with fears, will be made more liable to fear, and every one will allow that this is the way to form a habit of cowardice and not of COURAGE. LAWS VII

And, on the other hand, the habit of overcoming, from our youth upwards, the fears and terrors which beset us, may be said to be an exercise of COURAGE. LAWS VII

The grand, and that which tends to COURAGE, may be fairly called manly ; but that which inclines to moderation and temperance, may be declared both in law and in ordinary speech to be the more womanly quality. LAWS VII

A night which is passed in such a manner, in addition to all the above-mentioned advantages, infuses a sort of COURAGE into the minds of the citizens. LAWS VII

the unwarlike muse, which honours in dance the Gods and the sons of the Gods, is entirely associated with the consciousness of prosperity ; this class may be subdivided into two lesser classes, of which one is expressive of an escape from some labour or danger into good, and has greater pleasures, the other expressive of preservation and increase of former good, in which the pleasure is less exciting ; — in all these cases, every man when the pleasure is greater, moves his body more, and less when the pleasure is less ; and, again, if he be more orderly and has learned COURAGE from discipline he waves less, but if he be a coward, and has no training or self-control, he makes greater and more violent movements, and in general when he is speaking or singing he is not altogether able to keep his body still ; and so out of the imitation of words in gestures the whole art of dancing has arisen. LAWS VII

he not require that they shall practise some gymnastic exercises, greater as well as lesser, as often as every month ; and that they shall have contests one with another in every part of the country, seizing upon posts and lying in ambush, and imitating in every respect the reality of war ; fighting with boxing-gloves and hurling javelins, and using weapons somewhat dangerous, and as nearly as possible like the true ones, in order that the sport may not be altogether without fear, but may have terrors and to a certain degree show the man who has and who has not COURAGE ; and that the honour and dishonour which are assigned to them respectively, may prepare the whole city for the true conflict of life ? LAWS VIII

Will such passions implant in the soul of him who is seduced the habit of COURAGE, or in the soul of the seducer the principle of temperance ? LAWS VIII

For the one is a lover of the body, and hungers after beauty, like ripe fruit, and would fain satisfy himself without any regard to the character of the beloved ; the other holds the desire of the body to be a secondary matter, and looking rather than loving and with his soul desiring the soul of the other in a becoming manner, regards the satisfaction of the bodily love as wantonness ; he reverences and respects temperance and COURAGE and magnanimity and wisdom, and wishes to live chastely with the chaste object of his affection. LAWS VIII

And had they ; COURAGE to abstain from what is ordinarilly deemed a pleasure for the sake of a victory in wrestling, running, and the like ; and shall our young men be incapable of a similar endurance for the sake of a much nobler victory, which is the noblest of all, as from their youth upwards we will tell them, charming them, as we hope, into the belief of this by tales and sayings and songs ? LAWS VIII

Yes ; and COURAGE is a part of virtue, and cowardice of vice ? LAWS X

Let this then be the law, having an ingredient of praise, not compelling but advising the great body of the citizens to honour the brave men who are the saviours of the whole state, whether by their COURAGE or by their military skill ; — they should honour them, I say, in the second place ; for the first and highest tribute of respect is to be given to those who are able above other men to honour the words of good legislators. LAWS XI

And further, all four of them we call one ; for we say that COURAGE is virtue, and that prudence is virtue, and the same of the two others, as if they were in reality not many but one, that is, virtue. LAWS XII

Ask me what is that one thing which call virtue, and then again speak of as two, one part being COURAGE and the other wisdom. LAWS XII

I will tell you how that occurs : — One of them has to do with fear ; in this the beasts also participate, and quite young children — I mean COURAGE ; for a courageous temper is a gift of nature and not of reason. LAWS XII

And is there anything greater to the legislator and the guardian of the law, and to him who thinks that he excels all other men in virtue, and has won the palm of excellence, that these very qualities of which we are now speaking — COURAGE, temperance, wisdom, justice ? LAWS XII

Then, as would appear, we must compel the guardians of our divine state to perceive, in the first place, what that principle is which is the same in all the four — the same, as we affirm, in COURAGE and in temperance, and in justice and in prudence, and which, being one, we call as we ought, by the single name of virtue. LAWS XII

From the attainment of ordinary virtue — [977d] COURAGE and temperance — it is certainly not debarred : but if a man is deprived of true telling he can never become wise, and he who has not the acquirement of wisdom — the greatest part of virtue as a whole — can no more achieve the perfect goodness which may make him happy. EPINOMIS XII

And of the gods who are really manifest to us the same statement must surely hold — that those men are most evil who have not COURAGE to tell and make manifest to us that these are likewise gods, but without any frenzied rites, or any tribute of the honors that are their due. EPINOMIS XII

And the best are they which can only become so with the greatest difficulty, and the benefit is greatest if they do become so : for a soul that admits of slowness and the opposite inclination moderately and gently will be good-tempered ; and if it admires COURAGE, and is easily persuaded to temperance, and, most important of all, is enabled [989c] by these natural gifts to learn and has a good memory, it will be able to rejoice most fully in these very things, so as to be a lover of learning. EPINOMIS XII

For while it might be thought that excellence in COURAGE and speed and strength might belong to various other men, everyone would agree that surpassing excellence in truth, justice, generosity and the outward exhibition of all these virtues [4. LETTERS 4

If he have taken a false step he must be able to recover himself ; he must be one who can speak with effect, if any of his deeds come to light, and who can force his way where force is required by his COURAGE and strength, and command of money and friends. THE REPUBLIC II

These two harmonies I ask you to leave ; the strain of necessity and the strain of freedom, the strain of the unfortunate and the strain of the fortunate, the strain of COURAGE, and the strain of temperance ; these, I say, leave. THE REPUBLIC III

them as unimportant whether they occupy a space large or small, but everywhere eager to make them out ; and not thinking ourselves perfect in the art of reading until we recognize them wherever they are found : True — Or, as we recognize the reflection of letters in the water, or in a mirror, only when we know the letters themselves ; the same art and study giving us the knowledge of both : Exactly — Even so, as I maintain, neither we nor our guardians, whom we have to educate, can ever become musical until we and they know the essential forms of temperance, COURAGE, liberality, magnificence, and their kindred, as well as the contrary forms, in all their combinations, and can recognize them and their images wherever they are found, not slighting them either in small things or great, but believing them all to be within the sphere of one art and study. THE REPUBLIC III

Yet surely, I said, this ferocity only comes from spirit, which, if rightly educated, would give COURAGE, but, if too much intensified, is liable to become hard and brutal. THE REPUBLIC III

In the first place, none of them should have any property of his own beyond what is absolutely necessary ; neither should they have a private house or store closed against anyone who has a mind to enter ; their provisions should be only such as are required by trained warriors, who are men of temperance and COURAGE ; they should agree to receive from the citizens a fixed rate of pay, enough to meet the expenses of the year and no more ; and they will go to mess and live together like soldiers in a camp. THE REPUBLIC III

Again, I said, there is no difficulty in seeing the nature of COURAGE, and in what part that quality resides which gives the name of courageous to the State. THE REPUBLIC IV

The rest of the citizens may be courageous or may be cowardly, but their COURAGE or cowardice will not, as I conceive, have the effect of making the city either the one or the other. THE REPUBLIC IV

The city will be courageous in virtue of a portion of herself which preserves under all circumstances that opinion about the nature of things to be feared and not to be feared in which our legislator educated them ; and this is what you term COURAGE. THE REPUBLIC IV

I mean that COURAGE is a kind of salvation. THE REPUBLIC IV

And this sort of universal saving power of true opinion in conformity with law about real and false dangers I call and maintain to be COURAGE, unless you disagree. THE REPUBLIC IV

But I agree, he replied ; for I suppose that you mean to exclude mere uninstructed COURAGE, such as that of a wild beast or of a slave — this, in your opinion, is not the COURAGE which the law ordains, and ought to have another name. THE REPUBLIC IV

Then I may infer COURAGE to be such as you describe ? THE REPUBLIC IV

Why, yes, said I, you may, and if you add the words “of a citizen,” you will not be far wrong — hereafter, if you like, we will carry the examination further, but at present we are seeking, not for COURAGE, but justice ; and for the purpose of our inquiry we have said enough. THE REPUBLIC IV

Why, because temperance is unlike COURAGE and wisdom, each of which resides in a part only, the one making the State wise and the other valiant ; not so temperance, which extends to the whole, and runs through all the notes of the scale, and produces a harmony of the weaker and the stronger and the middle class, whether you suppose them to be stronger or weaker in wisdom, or power, or numbers, or wealth, or anything else. THE REPUBLIC IV

Because I think that this is the only virtue which remains in the State when the other virtues of temperance and COURAGE and wisdom are abstracted ; and, that this is the ultimate cause and condition of the existence of all of them, and while remaining in them is also their preservative ; and we were saying that if the three were discovered by us, justice would be the fourth, or remaining one. THE REPUBLIC IV

Then the power of each individual in the State to do his own work appears to compete with the other political virtues, wisdom, temperance, COURAGE. THE REPUBLIC IV

Also that the same quality which constitutes COURAGE in the State constitutes COURAGE in the individual, and that both the State and the individual bear the same relation to all the other virtues ? THE REPUBLIC IV

Glaucon laughed and said : Well, then, Socrates, in case you and your argument do us any serious injury you shall be acquitted beforehand of the homicide, and shall not be held to be a deceiver ; take COURAGE then and speak. THE REPUBLIC V

And must not that be a blameless study which he only can pursue who has the gift of a good memory, and is quick to learn — noble, gracious, the friend of truth, justice, COURAGE, temperance, who are his kindred ? THE REPUBLIC VI

Neither is there any reason why I should again set in array the philosopher’s virtues, as you will doubtless remember that COURAGE, magnificence, apprehension, memory, were his natural gifts. THE REPUBLIC VI

In the first place there are their own virtues, their COURAGE, temperance, and the rest of them, every one of which praiseworthy qualities (and this is a most singular circumstance) destroys and distracts from philosophy the soul which is the possessor of them. THE REPUBLIC VI

and remember what we were saying of him, that he was to have quickness and memory and COURAGE and magnificence — these were admitted by us to be the true philosopher’s gifts. THE REPUBLIC VI

You may remember, I said, that we divided the soul into three parts ; and distinguished the several natures of justice, temperance, COURAGE, and wisdom ? THE REPUBLIC VI

And, again, in respect of temperance, COURAGE, magnificence, and every other virtue, should we not carefully distinguish between the true son and the bastard ? THE REPUBLIC VII

as fellow-soldiers or fellowsailors ; aye, and they may observe the behavior of each other in the very moment of danger — for where danger is, there is no fear that the poor will be despised by the rich — and very likely the wiry, sunburnt poor man may be placed in battle at the side of a wealthy one who has never spoilt his complexion and has plenty of superfluous flesh — when he sees such a one puffing and at his wits’-end, how can he avoid drawing the conclusion that men like him are only rich because no one has the COURAGE to despoil them ? THE REPUBLIC VIII

And when they have emptied and swept clean the soul of him who is now in their power and who is being initiated by them in great mysteries, the next thing is to bring back to their house insolence and anarchy and waste and impudence in bright array, having garlands on their heads, and a great company with them, hymning their praises and calling them by sweet names ; insolence they term “breeding,” and anarchy “liberty,” and waste “magnificence,” and impudence “COURAGE.” THE REPUBLIC VIII

Or if honor, or victory, or COURAGE, in that case the judgment of the ambitious or pugnacious would be the truest ? THE REPUBLIC IX

Very true, he said ; but in your presence, even if I had any faint notion, I could not muster COURAGE to utter it. THE REPUBLIC X

Pleasure and distress, fear and COURAGE, desire and aversion, where have these affections and experiences their seat? Ennead I, 1, 1

Nor is there place for COURAGE: COURAGE implies the presence of danger. Ennead I, 1, 2

A reader will often be quite unconscious when he is most intent: in a feat of COURAGE there can be no sense either of the brave action or of the fact that all that is done conforms to the rules of COURAGE. Ennead I, 4, 10

It is that you find in yourself, or admire in another, loftiness of spirit; righteousness of life; disciplined purity; COURAGE of the majestic face; gravity; modesty that goes fearless and tranquil and passionless; and, shining down upon all, the light of god-like Intellection. Ennead I, 6, 5

For, as the ancient teaching was, moral-discipline and COURAGE and every virtue, not even excepting Wisdom itself, all is purification. Ennead I, 6, 6

So too, COURAGE is but being fearless of the death which is but the parting of the Soul from the body, an event which no one can dread whose delight is to be his unmingled self. Ennead I, 6, 6

And we must remember that what comes from the supernals does not enter into the recipients as it left the source; fire, for instance, will be duller; the loving instinct will degenerate and issue in ugly forms of the passion; the vital energy in a subject not so balanced as to display the mean of manly COURAGE, will come out as either ferocity or faint-heartedness; and ambition… Ennead II, 3, 11

The potential is led out into realization by something other than itself; power accomplishes, of itself, what is within its scope, but by virtue of Actuality [the abstract]: the relation is that existing between a temperament and its expression in act, between COURAGE and courageous conduct. Ennead II, 5, 2

Again: if the Soul is a body, how can we account for its virtues moral excellence [Sophrosyne], justice, COURAGE and so forth? Ennead IV, 7, 8

All these could be only some kind of rarefied body [pneuma], or blood in some form; or we might see COURAGE as a certain resisting power in that pneuma; moral quality would be its happy blending; beauty would lie wholly in the agreeable form of impressions received, such comeliness as leads us to describe people as attractive and beautiful from their bodily appearance. Ennead IV, 7, 8

And suppose virtue itself given the choice whether to find occasion for its exercise war evoking COURAGE; wrong, so that it may establish justice and good order; poverty that it may show independence or to remain inactive, everything going well, it would choose the peace of inaction, nothing calling for its intervention, just as a physician like Hippocrates would prefer no one to stand in need of his skill. Ennead VI, 8, 5

With all his COURAGE he would stand astounded, unable at any venture to speak of This, with the vision everywhere before the eyes of the soul so that, look where one may, there it is seen unless one deliberately look away, ignoring God, thinking no more upon Him. Ennead VI, 8, 19