And since classical times it is connected with acting as well as speaking. A man in ancient Ireland as in ancient Greece was not what he said but what he did. All you had to do was watch him in action, tied to a tree, crows circling his head, his enemies afraid to advance until the crows settled on his shoulders and pecked out his eyes. The classical conception of courage is what makes a great life, just as it makes a great movie. In John Ford's great film, Young Mr Lincoln, the most stirring scene is factually based and shows Lincoln as a young lawyer facing down a lynch mob.
Life is full of lynch mobs, and modern life is full of media lynch mobs.
And you need courage to confront these mobs. You need the courage to be wise when the mob wants to mob law, the courage to be just when the mob wants lynch law, the courage to be temperate when the mob wants too much law. But deep down private and public courage are deeply connected. If we speak up against racial prejudice in our local pub then it becomes easier for politicians to speak out at a national level. Conversely if politicians take risks for principle in their public lives it makes it easier for us to be brave in our private lives.