“5344. Valour would fight, but Discretion would run away.”

Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1747) : Courage would fight, but Discretion won't let him.
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

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British physician, preacher, and intellectual 1654–1734

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“5324. Two Dogs fight for a Bone, and a third runs away with it.”

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Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

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“For he would be thinking of love
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“For he who fights and runs away
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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".

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