André Gide’s journal contains this passage:
“True courage,” said Napoleon, “is that of three a. m.” He meant thereby, probably, that the courage he esteemed was that from which all intoxication, all vanity, all emulation were excluded. A courage without witnesses and without accomplices; courage when sober and on an empty stomach. . . . I cannot esteem the courage that is due, as so often happens, merely to a lack of imagination, just as fear is very often the result of an excessive imagination. . . . Before admiring the one who risks his life, I should like to be sure that he values it. So many young fellows, during the war, saw in the fact of risking their life a unique opportunity of winning some glory! Just imagine all of a sudden, among them, a person who feels himself to be the possessor of some secret message which, if he lives, will soon be a great boon to all the others; would not the truest courage, for him, be trying to preserve that secret? (Quoted in The Life of the Creative Spirit, p. 176.)
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Here are the Saunterer’s criteria for an act to be truly courageous. The act must be regarded as good by part or all of society (rules out criminal acts). The decision to do the act must be reached alone (rules out being egged on). The act must be decided by long conscious deliberation (rules out on-the-spot, automatic decisions, as running into a road to save a dog). To the one who acts, the act must carry probable risk of paying a price of psychological or physical harm.
The criteria admit certain gay people’s coming out. The criteria admit youngsters openly renouncing their membership from bad gangs.
Readers, what are your criteria? Have you any examples of true courage?
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For a brief biography of André Gide, click here.
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