Entry in progress—B.P.
   
[This entry was prepared with assistance from Garson O’Toole, Quote Investigator.]
 
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May 1878, Temple Bar: A London Magazine, “Sticks, Stocks an Stones” by Arma Virumque Cano, pg. 54:
‘Tis the same morally: all men are brave, but if one man is brave two minutes longer than the other he has a decided advantage.
 
31 August 1907, Hackney Express And Shoreditch Observer (London), pg. 7, col. 2:
Lord Palmerston was credited once with attributing in modest fashion the success of the British arms to this quality when he deprecated the statement that the British soldier was any braver than the French soldier; but he added, “He is brave five minutes longer.”
 
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July 1912, The Children’s Friend, pg. 353:
BRAVE FIVE MINUTES LONGER.
The Duke of Wellington is credited with saying that the British soldier was not braver than the soldiers of other countries, but he was brave five minutes longer, and, of course, the result could only be one thing, namely, victory.
 
1 January 1916, Trenton (NJ) Evening Times, pg. 11, col. 7:
A wise general used to say that British soldiers were not braver than the soldiers of other nations, but they were brave five minutes longer.
 
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Playing square with Tomorrow
By Fred Eastman
New York, NY: published jointly by Council of Women for Home Missions and Missionary Education Movement
1921
Pg. 47:
Emerson said, “A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.”
   
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Religion Says You Can
By Dilworth Lupton
Boston, MA: The Beacon Press
1938
Pg. 25:
First, we should learn the meaning of Emerson’s observation that “a hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.”
 
The Notes:
Ronald Reagan’s Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom
By Ronald Reagan
Edited by Douglas Brinkley
New York, NY: HarperCollins
2011
Pg. 141:
ON CHARACTER
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The hero is no braver than an ordinary man—but he is brave 5 min. longer.