03 October 2011

Daring Is The Thing

As we must all expect to leave
our life on this earth, we must earn some renown,
If we can before death; daring is the thing
for a fighting man to be remembered by.
A man must act so
when he means in a fight to frame himself
a long lasting glory; it is not life he thinks of.

Beowulf

6 comments:

NJS said...

Sound, sound the clarion fill the fife,
Throughout the sensual world proclaim,
One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth and age without a name.
Sir Walter Scott.

The there is brave Horatius as well...

Laguna Beach Fogey said...

NJS ~ Indeed. Incidentally, I'm unable to post comments to your column (as well as a few others). I think I have been banned.

w. adam mandelbaum esq. said...

a hero dies but one death, but a coward gets to shtup his widow.

Lea Perrins said...

"Civilization is a matter of imponderables, of delight in the things of the mind, of love, of beauty, of honor, grace, courtesy, delicate feeling....and if, at the same time the power to act exists unimpaired, human life has reached a level seldom attained and very seldom surpassed".

E. Hamilton: The Greek Way

NJS said...

LBF - No, you haven't been banned by me. I have to comment on my own site as 'anonymous'! I'll have to look into it all. Don't worry.
NJS

Laguna Beach Fogey said...

NJS ~ Thanks. I assumed it was a blogspot glitch, as there are a few other blogs (e.g., A Gentleman in Almost Every Inch, Modern Cavalier, Mad Dogs and Englishmen) where I'm unable to leave a comment.