Cowardice

...We will face choices,... the quality of our lives, the happiness of our lives, will depend on them.... And what we choose will affect the happiness of others as well. It's misery enough to live with the knowledge that you are a coward. How greater must be the misery to know that you loved so little that the example of your cowardice has weakened the hearts of your children, made their courage harder to find, their love poorer, their happiness more elusive? What other success could we achieve in our lives to overcome the guilt of such a failure? Nothing, absolutely nothing, could ever matter more."
"Why Courage Matters: The Way To A Braver Life", John McCain