"The person who runs away exposes himself to that very danger more than a person who sits quietly"
About this Quote
The rhetoric is deliberately plain, almost domestic: “runs away” versus “sits quietly.” Nehru isn’t romanticizing stoicism; he’s framing composure as tactical. “Quietly” implies clarity, the ability to see the situation as it is rather than as dread imagines it. That’s the subtext: danger thrives on disorientation. When you bolt, you lose information, waste energy, and broadcast vulnerability. Staying still reads as control, which can deter threat and preserve options.
Context matters. Nehru’s political life was a long tutorial in managing peril without surrendering agency: anti-colonial struggle, imprisonment, communal violence, Partition, the fragile early years of Indian statehood. In that world, the temptation to retreat into cynicism, sectarian certainty, or authoritarian “security” was constant. The quote pushes a different ethic: steadiness as a form of resistance. It’s less about passive endurance than about refusing to let fear choose your movements - personally, and nationally.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Nehru, Jawaharlal. (2026, January 17). The person who runs away exposes himself to that very danger more than a person who sits quietly. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-person-who-runs-away-exposes-himself-to-that-28593/
Chicago Style
Nehru, Jawaharlal. "The person who runs away exposes himself to that very danger more than a person who sits quietly." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-person-who-runs-away-exposes-himself-to-that-28593/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The person who runs away exposes himself to that very danger more than a person who sits quietly." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-person-who-runs-away-exposes-himself-to-that-28593/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.















