And thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, / And enterprises of great pith and moment / With this regard their currents turn awry, / And lose the name of action." He says this speaking of how he does not act immediately, how his fear of death prevents his action and how natural boldness is blunted by overthinking.

Hamlet's own cowardice is, again, called out in one of his soliloquies. He speaks of his boldness and ability to act -- calling himself lily-livered and incapable of action in lines 565-567 of act two scene two: "But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall / To make oppression bitter"