Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 34

The world also will ever hold you in dishonour. And to the honoured, disrepute is surely worse than death.

Coward. Deserter. That's the story people would tell, and for someone like you, that story is worse than dying.

Krishna appeals to something Arjuna already cares about deeply: his reputation. For a person of honor, being remembered as a coward can sting more than the fear of death itself.