Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear-not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose application of the word. Consider the flea! - incomparably the bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage.
Pudd'nhead Wilson ch. 12, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar" (1894)
![Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear-not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose application of the word. Consider the flea! -](http://cdn.myquotes.org/images/mark-twain/courage-is-resistance-to-fear-mastery-of-fear-not-absence-of-fear-except-a-creature-be-part-coward-it-is.jpg)