Learn English – The meaning of “People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.”

The difference between give in and give up is subtle. To give up is to forfeit, lose, or acquiesce, like letting a ball fall from your hands. To give in is to yield or submit to pressure, like a paper cup crumpling when you squeeze it. Giving up is more like something that you do, while giving in is more like allowing something to happen to you. In most situations, they’re freely interchangeable.

The whole phrase is saying that you should only yield to pressure when either your sense of honour, or your sense of reason, says that you should. You should not give in—and thus compromise your honour or reason—under pressure from your enemies.

Yes, Jack is refering to the game of golf — no metaphors involved.

In the game of golf, several people hit their balls toward the hole several hundred yards away. The balls each come to rest somewhere hopefully close to the hole. Golfers are very particular about people interfering with their ball. They don't want anyone to move it farther from the hole than it was and other golfers don't want anyone to move it closer to the hole than it already was.

So when somebody accidentally picks up a ball that is not theirs (it is sometimes hard to tell one from another) everyone gets upset and comes over to yell at them — he's just met a bunch of new people, but probably not in the way he would have liked.