“Brave men were living before Agamemnon.”

— Horace , book Odes

Book IV, ode ix, line 25
Odes (c. 23 BC and 13 BC)

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Horace 92

Roman lyric poet -65–-8 BC

Steve Turner (1949) British writer

Source: The Band That Played On (Thomas Nelson, 2011), p. 151

“So live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

The origin of this quote is often misattributed to Cicero; however, it is from Line 135-136 of Book 2, Satire 2 by Horace, "Quocirca vivite fortes, fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus." The English translation that most closely matches the one misrepresented as Cicero's is from a collection of Horace's prose written by E. C. Wickham, "So live, my boys, as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts."
Misattributed

“So live, my boys, as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.”
Quocirca vivite fortes, fortiaque adversis opponite pectora rebus

Horace book Satires

Book II, Satire II, Line 135-136 (trans. E. C. Wickham)
Satires (c. 35 BC and 30 BC)

“Our men fought bravely, but the enemy repulsed me. Many valuable lives were lost. Our God was my shield. His protecting care is an additional cause for gratitude.”

Thomas Jackson (1824–1863) Confederate general

Letter to his wife from Mt. Jackson after the First Battle of Kernstown (24 March 1862), as quoted in Life and Campaigns of Lieut.-Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, (Stonewall Jackson) (1866) by Robert Lewis Dabney, p. 329

“Gold is good in its place; but living, brave, and patriotic men are better than gold.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, On Democratic Government (1864)
Context: But the election, along with its incidental and undesirable strife, has done good, too. It has demonstrated that a people's government can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war. Until now, it has not been known to the world that this was a possibility. It shows, also, how sound and strong we still are. It shows that even among the candidates of the same party, he who is most devoted to the Union and most opposed to treason can receive most of the people's votes. It shows, also, to the extent yet known, that we have more men now than we had when the war began. Gold is good in its place; but living, brave, and patriotic men are better than gold.

“I hear many condemn these men because they were so few. When were the good and the brave ever in a majority?”

Henry David Thoreau book A Plea for Captain John Brown

A Plea for Captain John Brown (1859)
Context: I hear many condemn these men because they were so few. When were the good and the brave ever in a majority? Would you have had him wait till that time came? — till you and I came over to him? The very fact that he had no rabble or troop of hirelings about him would alone distinguish him from ordinary heroes. His company was small indeed, because few could be found worthy to pass muster. Each one who there laid down his life for the poor and oppressed was a picked man, culled out of many thousands, if not millions; apparently a man of principle, of rare courage, and devoted humanity; ready to sacrifice his life at any moment for the benefit of his fellow-man.