Since then fortitude above all withdraws the mind from fear, it seems that it regards attack rather than endurance. For it is more difficult to allay fear than to moderate daring, since the danger which is the object of daring and fear, tends by its very nature to check daring, but to increase fear. Now to attack belongs to fortitude in so far as the latter moderates daring, whereas to endure follows the repression of fear. Therefore the principal act of fortitude is endurance, that is to stand immovable in the midst of dangers rather than to attack them. Reply to Objection 1.
Endurance is more difficult than aggression, for three reasons.
Reply to Objection 2. Now virtue concerns the soul rather than the body. Reply to Objection 3. He that endures fears not, though he is confronted with the cause of fear, whereas this cause is not present to the aggressor. Translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province.