Heroism Quotes - Page 16

• Harry Dresden. Saving the world, one act of random destruction at a time.

  Jim Butcher

  World, Saving, Harry Dresden

  Jim Butcher (2010). “Side Jobs: Stories from the Dresden Files”, p.173, Penguin

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• We three belong to the Middle Ages. We have this need of heroism, and there is no place for such feelings in modern life. That is our tragedy. Once I wanted to be a saint. It seemed the only absolute act left to do, for what is most powerful in me is the craving for purity, greatness.

  Anais Nin

  Powerful, Greatness, Feelings

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• So many misconceptions surround the notion of heroism. Far too many categorize a hero as a champion on the battlefield, a commander of legions, a master of rare talent or ability. Granted, there have been heroes who fit those descriptions. But many men of great evil as well. Heed me. A hero sacrifices for the greater good. A hero is true to his or her conscience. In short, heroism means doing the right thing regardless of the consequences. Although any person could fit that description, very few do. Choose this day to be one of them." (Beyonders - A World Without Heroes)

  Brandon Mull

  Hero, Mean, Sacrifice

  Brandon Mull (2013). “Brandon Mull's Beyonders Trilogy: A World Without Heroes; Seeds of Rebellion; Chasing the Prophecy”, p.105, Simon and Schuster

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• True heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and care—with no one there to see or cheer. This is the world.

  David Foster Wallace

  Cheer, Exercise, Years

  David Foster Wallace (2011). “The Pale King”, p.19, Penguin UK

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• On the night he died - he was twenty-seven - Basquiat had been planning to see a Run-DMC show. When people asked him what his art was about, he'd hit them with the same three words: "Royalty, heroism, and the streets.

  Jay-Z

  Running, Art, Night

  Jay-Z (2010). “Decoded (Enhanced Edition)”, p.108, Random House Group

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• The truth is that the heroism of your childhood entertainments was not true valor. It was theatre. The grand gesture, the moment of choice, the mortal danger, the external foe, the climactic battle whose outcome resolves all--all designed to appear heroic, to excite and gratify and audience. Gentlemen, welcome to the world of reality--there is no audience. No one to applaud, to admire. No one to see you. Do you understand?Here is the truth--actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one. No one queues up to see it. No one is interested.

  David Foster Wallace

  Real, Choices, Childhood

  "The Pale King". Book by David Foster Wallace, 2011.

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• To be a true hero you must be a true Christian. To sum up then, heroism is largely based on two qualities- truthfulness and unselfishness, a readiness to put one's own pleasures aside for that of others, to be courteous to all, kind to those younger than yourself, helpful to your parents, even if helpfulness demands some slight sacrifice of your own pleasure. . .you must remember that these two qualities are the signs of Christian heroism.

  G.A. Henty

  Christian, Hero, Sacrifice

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• Heroism's just doing more than you want to do or think you can. Sometimes it's just doing the crappy things, the unhappy things other people won't do....It's not just jumping out of a plane onto a glacier ten thousand feet up because there's nobody else there to do it. It's getting out of bed in the morning when it seems like too much trouble.

  Nora Roberts

  Morning, Thinking, Jumping

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• Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them - that it was a vain endeavor?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Karma, Men, Trying

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.357, Penguin

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• Being Kind Not in some great deed of heroism; not in some great speech or act that may be pointed to with pride-but rather in the little kindnesses from day to day.

  Edgar Cayce

  Spiritual, Kindness, Pride

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• Adversity is an opportunity for heroism.

  Marv Levy

  Football, Adversity, Opportunity

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• Routine is the death to heroism.

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Death, Routine

  "The Man Upstairs". Book by P. G. Wodehouse, 1914.

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• Suicide is a crime the most revolting to the feelings; nor does any reason suggest itself to our understanding by which it can be justified. It certainly originates in that species of fear which we denominate poltroonery. For what claim can that man have to courage who trembles at the frowns of fortunes? True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life in whatever shape they may challenge him to combat.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Suicide, Men, Understanding

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• It is an impressive truth that sometimes in the very lowest forms of duty, less than which would rank a man as a villain, there is, nevertheless the sublimest ascent of self-sacrifice. To do less would class you as an object of eternal scorn, to do so much presumes the grandeur of heroism.

  Thomas de Quincey

  Sacrifice, Men, Self

  Thomas De Quincey (1854). “De Quincey's works”, p.125

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• Did you ever hear of a man who had striven all his life faithfully and singly towards an object, and in no measure obtained it? If a man constantly aspires, is he not elevated? Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them,--that it was a vain endeavor?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Trying, Sincerity

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.357, Penguin

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• Grit is the grain of character. It may generally be described as heroism materialized,--spirit and will thrust into heart, brain, and backbone, so as to form part of the physical substance of the man.

  Edwin Percy Whipple

  Character, Heart, Men

  Edwin Percy Whipple (1875). “Success and Its Conditions”, p.58

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• A fixed idea ends in madness or heroism.

  Victor Hugo

  Ideas, Madness, Ends

  Victor Hugo, Frank Lee Benedict (1874). “Ninety-three”, p.205, Dawson Bros.

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• The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may going to prove one's self a fool.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Hero, Self, Doubt

  The Blithedale Romance ch. 2 (1852)

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• History of Ireland--lawlessness and turbulency, robbery and oppression, hatred and revenge, blind selfishness everywhere--no principle, no heroism. What can be done with it?

  William Allingham

  Revenge, Hatred, Selfishness

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• Love, supreme power of the heart, mysterious enthusiasm that encloses in itself all poetry, all heroism, all religion!

  Madame de Stael

  Heart, Enthusiasm, Mysterious

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• Fantasy is a literature particularly useful for embodying and examining the real difference between good and evil. In an America where our reality may seem degraded to posturing patriotism and self-righteous brutality, imaginative literature continues to question what heroism is, to examine the roots of power, and to offer moral alternatives. Imagination is the instrument of ethics. There are many metaphors besides battle, many choices besides war, and most ways of doing good do not, in fact, involve killing anybody. Fanstasy is good at thinking about those other ways.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Real, War, Thinking

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• The backside of heroism is often rather sad; women and servants know that. They know also that the heroism may be no less real for that. But achievement is smaller than men think. What is large is the sky, the earth, the sea, the soul.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Real, Men, Thinking

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2016). “The Unreal and the Real: The Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin”, p.599, Simon and Schuster

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• Faith is the very heroism and enterprise of intellect. Faith is not a passivity, but a faculty. Faith is power, the material of effect. Faith is a kind of winged intellect. The great work men of history have been men who believed like giants.

  Charles Henry Parkhurst

  Faith, Men, Giants

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• [On gay ban in the military:] Heroism, I believe, is a trait that does not know race, color, creed, sex, or sexual orientation.

  Dianne Feinstein

  Sex, Military, Believe

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• Preparatory human beings. - I welcome all signs that a more virile, warlike age is about to begin, which will restore honour to courage above all! For this age shall prepare the way for one yet higher, and it shall gather the strength that this higher age will require some day - the age that will carry heroism into the search for knowledge and that will wage wars for the sake of ideas and their consequences.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  War, Ideas, Age

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