Is it easier to fight with dignity than to surrender in shame?

Of course it is. Take out the fighting and surrendering parts, and what have you got? You are left with dignity or shame. If one had to choose, the obvious choice would be dignity. Who wants to be shamed? Unless you have some sort of depressive disorder, I think all of us prefer the feeling we get from being dignified over that of shame.

Though the idea of fighting may not appeal to us, fighting vs. surrendering is in human nature, and has been since the beginning of time. Fight, or give up and you die.

Fighting is obviously a physically taxing activity, so therefore it is perceived correctly to be hard. If one was to fight and win, whatever they may be fighting, if they won, obviously it was worth the fight. Surrender though, I thnk comes from unwillingness and uncertainty. Am I good enough? I don't want to have to face a negative answer, so I will do nothing; I will surrender. This mentality, while it may be neutral as far as figuring out whether one won or lost, is something that I think people who surrender would have to live with. Personally, I would always wonder and have a sense of regret about anything I surrendered. Could I have won? Should I have surrendered? There's that sense of doubt, and that is a lot to have to think about. Essentially though, I tend to believe that it is better to fight for your beliefs and for your character rather than to yield to someone or something because it is the easy thing to do.