The Art of Poetry on a New Plan (1761), vol. ii. p. 147.
The saying "he who fights and runs away may live to fight another day" dates at least as far back as Menander (ca. 341–290 B.C.), Gnomai Monostichoi, aphorism #45: ἀνήρ ὁ ϕɛύγων καὶ ράλίν μαχήɛṯαί (a man who flees will fight again). The Attic Nights (book 17, ch. 21) of Aulus Gellius (ca. 125–180 A.D.) indicates it was already widespread in the second century: "...the orator Demosthenes sought safety in flight from the battlefield, and when he was bitterly taunted with his flight, he jestingly replied in the well-known verse: The man who runs away will fight again".
“He who flees will fight again.”
De Fuga in Persecutione, 10
Original
Qui fugiebat, rursus sibi proeliabitur.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Tertullian 41
Christian theologian 155–220Related quotes
“Anger prepares us to fight and fear prepares us to flee.”
Source: Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
“The man who runs may fight again.”
Variant translation: The man who runs away will fight again.
Monosticha.
“[…] is running like a scolded dog! (usually said when a heel wrestler flees from a fight)”
Commentary Quotes
Source: Ross, Jim, http://www.wwe.com/superstars/smackdown/jimross/bio/, J.R.'s WWE Profile, 2008-01-06, January 5, 2008, JRsBarBQ.com
Light (1919), Ch. XVI - De Profundis Clamavi
Context: War will come again after this one. It will come again as long as it can be determined by people other than those who fight. The same causes will produce the same effects, and the living will have to give up all hope.
“For those that fly may fight again,
Which he can never do that's slain.”
Canto III, line 243
Source: Hudibras, Part III (1678)
"A Alma e a Gente - D. Maria II, A Rainha da Regeneração"
Original: (pt) Quem luta pela unidade para mim é grande. Quem se bate pela divisão para mim...
Original: (pt) abana a cabeça reprovadoramente
Speech at the Labour Party conference (5 October 1960) in opposition to a motion endorsing unilateral nuclear disarmament.