Nicomachean Ethics

​But the fearful is not the same for all, though we do speak of some things as being beyond human endurance. This, then, is indeed fearful to everyone who has intellect, at least. But those things that are within human limits differ in magnitude and in being more or less. And similarly also with things that inspire confidence. But the courageous person is undaunted, as a human being. He will therefore fear even such things, but he will endure them as he ought and as reason prescribes, for the sake of the noble; for this is the end of virtue. But it is possible to fear these things more or less, and further to fear things that are not fearful as if they were such. And errors occur, either because one fears what one ought not, or because one fears not as one ought, or because one fears not when one ought, or through some other such thing; and similarly also concerned with things that inspire confidence. He, then, who endures and fears what he ought and for the sake of what he ought, and as he ought and when, and similarly is confident, is courageous; for the courageous person feels and acts according to worth, and as reason would prescribe. Now the end of every activity is that which is in accordance with the state. †And to the courageous person, courage is noble.† Such then is the end also; for each thing is defined by its end. It is for the sake of the noble, then, that the courageous person endures and performs the actions that accord with courage. Of those who exceed, on the other hand, the one who exceeds in fearlessness is nameless (and we have said in our earlier discussions that many states are nameless), but he would be a madman or insensible if he feared nothing, neither earthquake nor waves, as they say of the Celts. But he who exceeds in confidence concerned with fearful things is rash. The rash person seems also to be a boaster and a pretender to courage; at all events, he wishes to appear to stand toward fearful things as the former actually does; so, in those matters where he can, he imitates him. For this reason, most of them are rash-cowards; for though they show rashness in these matters, they do not endure fearful things. But he who exceeds in fearing is a coward; for he fears both what he ought not and as he ought not, and all such things accompany him. He is deficient also in confidence; but he is more conspicuous in exceeding in his pains. The coward is indeed a despondent sort of person, for he fears everything. But the courageous person is the opposite; for confidence is the mark of a hopeful person. Thus, the coward, the rash person, and the courageous person are concerned with the same things, but stand in different relations to them. For the former exceed and fall short, while the latter is in the mean and stands as he ought. Also, rash people are headlong, and wish for dangers beforehand but stand aloof when they are in them, whereas courageous people are keen in action, but quiet beforehand. As has been said, then, courage is a mean concerned with things that inspire confidence and things that are fearful, in the situations we have mentioned, and it chooses and endures because doing so is noble, or because not doing so is disgraceful. But to die in order to escape poverty or love or anything painful is the act not of a courageous person, but rather of a coward; for to flee from what is troublesome is softness, and one endures death in this case not because it is noble, but in order to flee from an evil.