Dear Mrs A, Hooray, hooray, At last you are deflowered. On this as every other day I love youöNoe«  l Coward.

-Coward, Sir Noe«  l Peirce
  Telegram sent to Gertrude Lawrence the day after her marriage, quoted in Gertrude Lawrence A Star Danced (1945).

Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse.

-Goldsmith, Oliver
  The Vicar of  Wakefield, ch.13.

He was just a coward and that was the worst luck any man could have.

-Hemingway, Ernest Millar
  For Whom  the Bell Tolls, ch.30.

The sea hates a coward!

-O'Neill, Eugene Gladstone
  Bryant. Mourning Becomes Electra, pt.2, act 4.

I would have run to him, only I was a coward in the presence of such a moböwould have embraced him, only, he being an Englishman, I did not know how he would receive me; so I did what cowardice and false pride suggested was the best thingöwalked deliberately to him, took off my hat, and said: 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?' 'Yes,'said he, with a kind smile, lifting his cap slightly. I replace my hat on my head, and he puts on his cap, and we both grasp hands, and I then sayaloud: 'I thank God,Doctor, I have been permitted to see you.' He answered,'I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you.'

-Stanley, Sir Henry Morton originally John Rowlands
  How I Found Livingstone in Central Africa.

At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay, And a pinnace, like a fluttered bird, came flying from far away: 'Spanishships of warat sea! Wehavesighted fifty-three!' Then sware Lord Thomas Howard: ''Fore God I am no coward; But I cannot meetthem here, for my ships are out of gear, And the half my men are sick. I must fly, but followquick. Wearesix ships oftheline; canwefight withfifty-three?' Then spake Sir Richard Grenville: 'I know you are no coward; You fly them for a moment to fight with them again. But I've ninety men and more that are lying sick ashore. I should count myself the coward if I left them, my Lord Howard, To these Inquisition dogs and the devildoms of Spain.' So Lord Howard passed away with five ships of war that day, Till he melted like a cloud in the silent summer heaven.

-Tennyson
  'The Revenge', stanzas1^3, l.1^14.

Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word. The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword!

-Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'FlahertieWills
  The Ballad of Reading Gaol, pt.1, stanza 7.