“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities because it has been said it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

Maybe.

ditto EGL

I guess it depends on wherer you get your guide for personal virtue. St.Paul said: "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."(I Cor. 13:13) I say, Who cares?.

How can we face the Truth without Courage? How can we love without the courage to love and yet not be loved in return?

It's too bad courage is so often in short supply.

True Jack...but you can bet that when St. Paul was before Caesar--2 Tim 4---and he spoke as he should, knowing the truth would cost him is life....courage was one of the prime things God gave to him..it DOES matter...Faith, Love, and Hope REQUIRE courage...or they are not worth anything. Ditto Ken!!!

Reading Plato, Aristotle or Homer one would think this quality was essential to all other's in human character formation. In a way the major Eastern philosophers (Buddha, etc.) seemed to hold similar. I am unsure whether Christian tenets necessarily revised the definition of courage or not; but my thoughts go to a quote from a more recent group "Capitol Steps" who said:
"You have to be brave in the land of the free, if you believe in the powers that be."...