Heroism Quotes - Page 8

• We have more to learn today from the spectacle of a great man at a great moment than from any number of monographs on ancient wage levels.

  C. V. Wedgwood

  Men, Numbers, Levels

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• There is heroism even in the circles of hell for fellow-sinners who cling to each other in the fiery whirlwind and never recriminate.

  George Eliot

  Hero, Circles, Hell

  George Eliot (2000). “Felix Holt, The Radical”, p.433, Broadview Press

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• There has been a change in heroes within the working-class community

  David Riesman

  Hero, Class, Community

  David Riesman (1964). “Abundance for What?”, p.158, Transaction Publishers

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• The explanation of the propensity of the English people to portrait painting is to be found in their relish for a Fact. Let a man do the grandest things, fight the greatest battles, or be distinguished by the most brilliant personal heroism, yet the English people would prefer his portrait to a painting of the great deed. The likeness they can judge of; his existence is a Fact. But the truth of the picture of his deeds they cannot judge of, for they have no imagination.

  Benjamin Haydon

  Fighting, Men, People

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• For the company of the great is good company as Shakespeare understood it, as Plutarch understood it. The past remains the source from which example and precept can still be drawn.

  C. V. Wedgwood

  Past, Example, Good Company

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• Heroism is not blind courage: it is selfless action. it is knowing the odds are stacked against you, but feeling that you must do what you do for the good of others.

  John Baldoni

  Knowing, Odds, Feelings

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• The marathon is a charismatic event. It has everything. It has drama, competition, camaraderie & heroism

  Fred Lebow

  Drama, Inspirational Running, Competition

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• Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice.

  Thomas Merton

  Peace, Sacrifice, Demand

  Thomas Merton (2010). “The Nonviolent Alternative”, p.35, Macmillan

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• In private places, among sordid objects, an act of truth or heroism seems at once to draw to itself the sky as its temple, the sun as its cradle. Nature stretches out her arms to embrace man, only let his thoughts be of equal greatness.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Truth, Greatness, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “Miscellanies, embracing Nature, addresses, and lectures”, p.19

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• The future of modern society depends much more on the quiet heroism of the very few who are inspired by God. These few will greatly enjoy the divine inspiration and will be prepared to stand for the dignity of Man and true freedom and to keep the Law of God, even of it means martyrdom or death.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Inspiration, Mean, Men

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2015). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.29, SCM Press

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• From the time I read my first Hemingway work, The Sun Also Rises, as a student at Soldan High School in St. Louis, I was struck with an affliction common to my generation: Hemingway Awe.

  A. E. Hotchner

  School, Firsts, Sun

  A. E. Hotchner (2009). “Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir”, p.3, Da Capo Press

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• Go into the streets, into the slums, into the fashionable quarters. Go into the day courts and the night courts. Become acquainted with sorrow, with many kinds of sorrow. Learn of the wonderful heroism of the poor, of the incredible generosity of the very poor

  Minnie Maddern Fiske

  Night, Generosity, Sorrow

  Minnie Maddern Fiske, Alexander Woollcott (1917). “Mrs. Fiske: Her Views on Actors, Acting, and the Problems of Production”

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• Whatever excites the spirit of contradiction is capable of producing the last effects of heroism; which is only the highest pitch of obstinacy, in a good or bad cause, in wisdom or folly.

  William Hazlitt

  Causes, Lasts, Spirit

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1482, Delphi Classics

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• The chief business of the nation, as a nation, is the setting up of heroes, mainly bogus.

  H. L. Mencken

  Hero, Chiefs, Settings

  H. L. Mencken (2009). “Prejudices: Third Series”, p.20, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Every hero is a Samson. The strong man succumbs to the intrigues of the weak and the many; and if in the end he loses all patience he crushes both them and himself.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Crush, Strong, Hero

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Studies in Pessimism: Top of Schopenhauer”, p.63, 谷月社

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• Courage doesn't always involve physical heroism in the face of death. It doesn't always require giant leaps worthy of celebration. Sometimes, courage is the willingness to speak the truth about what you see and to own what you say.

  Seth Godin

  Life, Motivational, Work

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• Invention is an Heroic thing, and plac'd above the reach of a low, and vulgar Genius. It requires an active, a bold, a nimble, a restless mind: a thousand difficulties must be contemn'd with which a mean heart would be broken: many attempts must be made to no purpose: much Treasure must sometimes be scatter'd without any return: much violence, and vigour of thoughts must attend it: some irregularities, and excesses must be granted it, that would hardly be pardon'd by the severe Rules of Prudence.

  Thomas Sprat

  Mean, Heart, Science

  Thomas Sprat (1722). “The History of the Royal Society of London: For the Improving of Natural Knowledge”, p.392

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• Of all the races, there is no better stage for heroism than a marathon.

  George A. Sheehan

  Race, Marathon, Stage

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• The epic disappeared along with the age of personal heroism; there can be no epic with artillery.

  Ernest Renan

  Epic, Age, Artillery

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• The hunger for applause is the source for all conscious literature and heroism

  Francois de La Rochefoucauld

  Literature, Hunger, Conscious

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• Americans, unhappily, have the most remarkable ability to alchemize all bitter truths into an innocuous but piquant confection and to transform their moral contradictions, or public discussion of such contradictions, into a proud decoration, such as are given for heroism on the field of battle.

  James A. Baldwin

  America, Society, Battle

  "Notes of a Native Son". Book by James Baldwin, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 21, 1955.

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• Better not be a hero than work oneself up into heroism by shouting lies.

  George Santayana

  Lying, Hero, Shouting

  George Santayana (1937). “The Works of George Santayana: Dialogues in limbo. Platonism and the spiritual life. A long way round to Nirvana. The prestige of the infinite. Ultimate religion”

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• To say that there is a case for heroes is not to say that there is a case for hero worship. The surrender of decision, the unquestioning submission to leadership, the prostration of the average man before the Great Man -- these are the diseases of heroism, and they are fatal to human dignity. History amply shows that it is possible to have heroes without turning them into gods. And history shows, too, that when a society, in flight from hero worship, decides to do without great men at all, it gets into troubles of its own.

  Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

  Hero, Men, Average

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• It requires philosophy and heroism to rise above the opinion of the wise men of all nations and races.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Wise, Freedom, Philosophy

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Brownell Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Ida Husted Harper (1889). “History of woman suffrage”

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• Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.
  
  Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

  Max Ehrmann

  Being Yourself, Exercise, Cynical

  Max Ehrmann (2003). “Desiderata: A Survival Guide for Life”, p.9, Andrews McMeel Publishing

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