Life & Wisdom Quote by Menander

Menander draws a clean blade between courage and cosplay. “Let bravery be thy choice” frames courage as an act of will, not an inherited trait or a lucky mood. It’s something you elect when the situation demands it. Then the second clause snaps shut like a moral trapdoor: “but not bravado.” The warning isn’t against fear; it’s against performance. Bravado is bravery distorted by an audience, a noisy substitute that seeks credit more than it seeks right action.

The line works because it’s less a pep talk than a social diagnosis. In a culture where honor could be won and lost in public, where reputation circulated fast in the marketplace, the temptation wasn’t just to be courageous but to be seen as courageous. Menander, writing New Comedy for an urban Greek audience, specialized in the everyday ethics of social life: status games, pride, gossip, and the small humiliations that steer people into bad decisions. Bravado is the kind of “virtue” that gets a character into trouble in one of his plots: the young man puffing up, the soldier swaggering, the fool mistaking loudness for strength.

Subtextually, the quote flatters the listener while disciplining them. It grants you agency (“choice”) and maturity (“you can tell the difference”). It also suggests a pragmatic ideal of courage: quiet, proportionate, effective. The bravest person here isn’t the one who takes the biggest risk; it’s the one who doesn’t need applause to do the difficult thing.