Quote: I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom. Author: Bob Dylan 1941-, American Musician, Singer, Songwriter
Quote: Children demand that their heroes should be freckleless, and easily believe them so: perhaps a first discovery to the contrary is less revolutionary shock to a passionate child than the threatened downfall of habitual beliefs which makes the world seem to totter for us in maturer life. Author: George Eliot 1819-1880, British Novelist
Quote: A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
Quote: Every hero becomes a bore at last. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
Quote: Heroism feels and never reasons, and therefore is always right. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
Quote: The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic. Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist
Quote: Bardot, Byron, Hitler, Hemingway, Monroe, Sade: we do not require our heroes to be subtle, just to be big. Then we can depend on someone to make them subtle. Author: D. J. Enright 1920-, British Poet, Critic
Quote: A hero is someone right who doesn't change. Author: George Foreman 1949-, American Boxer
Quote: I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor food; I offer only hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country with his heart, and not merely with his lips, follow me. Author: Giuseppe Garibaldi 1807-1882, Italian Patriot, Soldier
Quote: The fame of heroes owes little to the extent of their conquests and all to the success of the tributes paid to them. Author: Jean Genet 1910-1986, French Playwright, Novelist
Quote: What is our task? To make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in. Author: David Lloyd George 1863-1945, British Statesman, Prime Minister
Quote: It is said, that no one is a hero to their butler. The reason is, that it requires a hero to recognize a hero. The butler, however, will probably know well how to estimate his equals. Author: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe 1749-1832, German Poet, Dramatist, Novelist
Quote: The hero draws inspiration from the virtue of his ancestors. Author: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe 1749-1832, German Poet, Dramatist, Novelist
Quote: Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one. Author: Baltasar Gracian 1601-1658, Spanish Philosopher, Writer
Quote: The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one's self a fool; the truest heroism is to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when it be obeyed. Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864, American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Quote: We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too. Author: Helen Hayes 1900-1993, American Actress
Quote: No man is a hero to his valet. This is not because the hero is no hero, but because the valet is a valet. Author: Georg Hegel 1770-1831, German Philosopher
Quote: Once the state has been founded, there can no longer be any heroes. They come on the scene only in uncivilized conditions. Author: Georg Hegel 1770-1831, German Philosopher
Quote: Be your own hero, it's cheaper than a movie ticket. Author: Doug Horton
Quote: A boy doesn't have to go to war to be a hero; he can say he doesn't like pie when he sees there isn't enough to go around. Author: Edgar Watson Howe 1853-1937, American Journalist, Author
Quote: What with making their way and enjoying what they have won, heroes have no time to think. But the sons of heroes --ah, they have all the necessary leisure. Author: Aldous Huxley 1894-1963, British Author
Quote: The idol of today pushes the hero of yesterday out of our recollection; and will, in turn, be supplanted by his successor of tomorrow. Author: Washington Irving 1783-1859, American Author
Quote: Mankind's common instinct for reality has always held the world to be essentially a theatre for heroism. In heroism, we feel, life's supreme mystery is hidden. We tolerate no one who has no capacity whatever for it in any direction. On the other hand, no matter what a man's frailties otherwise may be, if he be willing to risk death, and still more if he suffer it heroically, in the service he has chosen, the fact consecrates him forever. Author: William James 1842-1910, American Psychologist, Professor, Author
Quote: Heroes are created by popular demand, sometimes out of the scantiest materials. Author: Gerald W. Johnson 1890-1980, American Author
Quote: Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy. Author: Samuel Johnson 1709-1784, British Author
Quote: My heroes are and were my parents. I can't see having anyone else as my heroes. Author: Michael Jordan 1963-, American Basketball Player, Actor
Quote: A hero is someone we can admire without apology. Author: Kitty Kelley
Quote: There are heroes in evil as well as in good. Author: Francois De La Rochefoucauld 1613-1680, French Classical Writer
Quote: Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated. Author: Alphonse De Lamartine 1790-1869, French Poet, Statesman, Historian
Quote: The prudent see only the difficulties, the bold only the advantages, of a great enterprise; the hero sees both; diminishes the former and makes the latter preponderate, and so conquers. Author: Johann Kaspar Lavater 1741-1801, Swiss Theologian, Mystic
Quote: All our lives we fought against exalting the individual, against the elevation of the single person, and long ago we were over and done with the business of a hero, and here it comes up again: the glorification of one personality. This is not good at all. I am just like everybody else. Author: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin 1870-1924, Russian Revolutionary Leader
Quote: What is a hero without love for mankind. Author: Doris Lessing 1919-, British Novelist
Quote: And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods? Author: Thomas B. Macaulay 1800-1859, American Essayist and Historian
Quote: Ultimately a hero is a man who would argue with the gods, and so awakens devils to contest his vision. The more a man can achieve, the more he may be certain that the devil will inhabit a part of his creation. Author: Norman Mailer 1923-, American Author
Quote: In war the heroes always outnumber the soldiers ten to one. Author: H. L. Mencken 1880-1956, American Editor, Author, Critic, Humorist
Quote: The ordinary man is involved in action, the hero acts. An immense difference. Author: Henry Miller 1891-1980, American Author
Quote: Calculation never made a hero. Author: John Henry Newman 1801-1890, British Religious Leader, Prelate, Writer
Quote: Most people aren't appreciated enough, and the bravest things we do in our lives are usually known only to ourselves. No one throws ticker tape on the man who chose to be faithful to his wife, on the lawyer who didn't take the drug money, or the daughter who held her tongue again and again. All this anonymous heroism. Author: Peggy Noonan 1950-, American Author, Presidential Speechwriter
Quote: No heroine can create a hero through love of one, but she can give birth to one. Author: Jean Paul
Quote: One murder makes a villain, millions often a hero. Author: Bishop Porteous
Quote: A hero is a man who is afraid to run away. Author: English Proverb Sayings of British Origin
Quote: As a rule, all heroism is due to a lack of reflection, and thus it is necessary to maintain a mass of imbeciles. If they once understand themselves the ruling men will be lost. Author: Ernest Renan 1823-1892, French Writer, Critic, Scholar
Quote: Being a hero is about the shortest lived profession on earth. Author: Will Rogers 1879-1935, American Humorist, Actor
Quote: The main thing about being a hero is to know when to die. Author: Will Rogers 1879-1935, American Humorist, Actor
Quote: We can't all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by. Author: Will Rogers 1879-1935, American Humorist, Actor
Quote: Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards. Author: Jean Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778, Swiss Political Philosopher, Educationist, Essayist
Quote: How many famous and high-spirited heroes have lived a day too long? Author: Jean Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778, Swiss Political Philosopher, Educationist, Essayist
Quote: One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being. Author: May Sarton 1912-, American Poet, Novelist
Quote: It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle. Author: Norman Schwarzkopf 1934-, American General of the Gulf War
Quote: Had we lived I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale. Author: Robert Falcon Scott 1863-1912, British Antarctic Explorer
Quote: If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss; and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honor. Author: William Shakespeare 1564-1616, British Poet, Playwright, Actor
Quote: You cannot be a hero without being a coward. Author: George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950, Irish-born British Dramatist
Quote: The more characteristic American hero in the earlier day, and the more beloved type at all times, was not the hustler but the whittler. Author: Mark Sullivan 1874-1952, American Journalist, Historian
Quote: What makes a hero truly great is that they never despair. Author: Roy Thompson 1894-1977, British Press Lord
Quote: A big man has no time really to do anything but just sit and be big. Author: Source Unknown
Quote: Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy. Author: Source Unknown
Quote: The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. Author: Felix Adler 1851-1933, American Educator, Social Critic
Quote: You lived too long, we have supped full with heroes, they waste their deaths on us. Author: C. D. Andrews 1913-1992, British Poet, Scholar
Quote: Listen, my friend, there are two races of beings. The masses teeming and happy --common clay, if you like --eating, breeding, working, counting their pennies; people who just live; ordinary people; people you can't imagine dead. And then there are the others --the noble ones, the heroes. The ones you can quite well imagine lying shot, pale and tragic; one minute triumphant with a guard of honor, and the next being marched away between two gendarmes. Author: Jean Anouilh 1910-1987, French Playwright
Quote: They wouldn't be heroes if they were infallible, in fact they wouldn't be heroes if they weren't miserable wretched dogs, the pariahs of the earth, besides which the only reason to build up an idol is to tear it down again. Author: Lester Bangs 1948-1982, American Rock Journalist
Quote: Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story. Author: John Barth 1930-, American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Quote: What is a society without a heroic dimension? Author: Jean Baudrillard French Postmodern Philosopher, Writer
Quote: The world's battlefields have been in the heart chiefly; more heroism has been displayed in the household and the closet, than on the most memorable battlefields in history. Author: Henry Ward Beecher 1813-1887, American Preacher, Orator, Writer
Quote: True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life, in whatever shape they may challenge us to combat. Author: Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821, French General, Emperor
Quote: In our world of big names, curiously, our true heroes tend to be anonymous. In this life of illusion and quasi-illusion, the person of solid virtues who can be admired for something more substantial than his well-knownness often proves to be the unsung hero: the teacher, the nurse, the mother, the honest cop, the hard worker at lonely, underpaid, unglamorous, unpublicized jobs. Author: Daniel J. Boorstin 1914-, American Historian
Quote: Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes. Author: Bertolt Brecht 1898-1956, German Dramatist, Poet
Quote: Heroism is the divine relation which, in all times, unites a great man to other men. Author: Thomas Carlyle 1795-1881, Scottish Philosopher, Author
Quote: The poetry of heroism appeals irresistibly to those who don't go to a war, and even more to those whom the war is making enormously wealthy. It's always so. Author: Louis-Ferdinand Celine 1894-1961, French Author
Quote: Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid... He is the hero, he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor, by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world. Author: Raymond Chandler 1888-1959, American Author
Quote: I am convinced that a light supper, a good night's sleep, and a fine morning, have sometimes made a hero of the same man, who, by an indigestion, a restless night, and rainy morning, would have proved a coward. Author: Lord Chesterfield 1694-1773, British Statesman, Author
Quote: Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ''This was their finest hour.'' Author: Winston Churchill 1874-1965, British Statesman, Prime Minister
Quote: Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. Author: Winston Churchill 1874-1965, British Statesman, Prime Minister
Quote: The ''paper tiger'' hero, James Bond, offering the whites a triumphant image of themselves, is saying what many whites want desperately to hear reaffirmed: I am still the White Man, lord of the land, licensed to kill, and the world is still an empire at my feet. Author: Eldridge Cleaver 1935-, American Black Leader, Writer
Quote: To have no heroes is to have no aspiration, to live on the momentum of the past, to be thrown back upon routine, sensuality, and the narrow self. Author: Charles Horton Cooley 1864-1929, American Sociologist
Quote: Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion. Author: Calvin Coolidge 1872-1933, Thirtieth President of the USA
Quote: The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example. Author: Benjamin Disraeli 1804-1881, British Statesman, Prime Minister
Quote: Now stiff on a pillar with a phallic air nelson stylites in Trafalgar square reminds the British what once they were. Author: Lawrence Durrell 1912-1990, British Author
Quote: The great destroyers of nations and men are comfort, plenty and security. A coward gets scared and quits. A hero gets scared, but still goes on. Author: Source Unknown
Quote: One brave deed makes no hero. Author: John Greenleaf Whittier 1807-1892, American Poet, Reformer, Author
Quote: The opportunities for heroism are limited in this kind of world: the most people can do is sometimes not to be as weak as they've been at other times. Author: Angus Wilson 1913-1991, British Author
Quote: It's true that heroes are inspiring, but mustn't they also do some rescuing if they are to be worthy of their name? Would Wonder Woman matter if she only sent commiserating telegrams to the distressed? Author: Jeanette Winterson 1959-, British Author