Better to live one day as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep

Recorded as the view of Tipu Sahib c 1750-99, sultan of Mysore in India; see quot. 1800.

‘In this world I would rather live two days like a tiger, than two hundred years like a sheep.’
[1800 A. Beatson View of Origin and Conduct of War with Tippoo Sultaun x. 153]

The title of Anne Haverty's novel [One Day as a Tiger] derives from an old Tibetan proverb: ‘It is better to have lived one day as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep.’
[1997 Daily Telegraph (online ed.) 8 Mar.]

Related to: action and inaction; boldness

Bibliography of major proverb collections and works cited from modern editions is available here.