Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated.

The aphorism frames hatred not as strength or principled opposition but as a defensive reaction by someone who feels threatened. Shaw suggests that when a person is intimidated—socially, intellectually, or physically—hatred can function as a compensatory “revenge,” restoring a sense of power without requiring courage or clear-eyed engagement. The line also implies a moral psychology: hatred is less about the hated object than about the hater’s wounded pride and fear. In Shaw’s broader satirical and critical spirit, it reads as an indictment of reactive emotions that substitute for fortitude, self-knowledge, and rational confrontation of what one finds challenging.