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In Shakespeare's King Henry IV, Part I, Prince Hal tries to spur Falstaff on to achieve honor in the battle of Shrewsbury, even if it costs him his life. After the prince leaves, Falstaff soliloquizes:
Honor pricks me on. Yea, but how if honor pricks me off when I come on? How then? Can honor set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honor hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honor? A word. What is in that word, honor? What is that honor? Air: (a trim reckoning!) Who hath it? He that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. Tis insensible, then? Yea, to the dead, but will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it. Therefore, I'll none of it. Honor is a mere scutcheon.56a