Curse of Timidity
When we speak of social evils, we are in the habit of considering only physical and physiological ones, and more especially, alcoholism, syphilis, and tuberculosis. Evidently these are not by any means small evils and it is certainly to fight them courageously, and this is no easy task either, considering their prodigious development in present society, whose machinery becomes more complicated everyday.
In my opinion, however, there are also social evils of a moral nature, which though their manifestations are less violent, are at least as harmful as those I have mentioned above. I think one of the most important of these is the mental disease called timidity, which is pregnant with evil consequences for individuals as well as for groups. What evil does it not beget, with its deep and varied manifestations! — R D Karve, Reason, July 1934