The choices were limited though and leaving one behind never looks good on your resume.

Just had to point this out because it is bloody funny.

If you have witnesses to "bravery" then I think it can be argued you had other motivation this may end up making you seem a fool . That quote, however, trips me up.

True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world.

The section about before all the world. It confuses the fuck out of me actually since it says it is showing before the world but performing without witness.

For myself, I can only understand it if I take witness to mean not ordered or influenced by reasons beyond your own choice, and before the world to in fact mean that the act becomes known, or else it might end up being does a tree make a sound when it falls in the forest and there is no one around to hear it?

So I would instead phrase the quote as

True bravery is shown in disregard to outside influences by showing what you might be capable of without hope of it being known...

funny though since it can only be acknowledged as bravery if known.... dammit I confused myself.