Heroism Quotes - Page 9

• We moderns do not believe in demigods, but our smallest hero we expect to feel and act as a demigod.

  Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

  Believe, Hero, Demigods

  Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1961). “Laocoön: Nathan the Wise ; Minna von Barnhelm”

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• ... many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

  Max Ehrmann

  Life Is, Strive, Persons

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

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• His [Gen. Douglas MacArthurs] twenty-two medals-thirteen of them for heroism-probably exceeded those of any other figure in American history. He seemed to seek death on battlefields.

  William Manchester

  Courage, Two, Twenties

  William Manchester (1983). “American Caesar”, Laurel

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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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• What can I do now? What am I to become? How can I live in this world I'm condemned to but can't endure? They couldn't stand it either, so they made a world of their own. Well, they have each other's company, and they are heroes, whereas I'm quite alone, and have none of the qualities essential to heroism - the spirit, the toughness, the dedication. I'm back where I was as a child, solitary, helpless, unwanted, frightened.

  Anna Kavan

  Children, Hero, Dedication

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• To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Country, Gratitude, Veterans Day

  Woodrow Wilson, Arthur Stanley Link (1991). “The Papers of Woodrow Wilson”

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• I feel uncomfortable about the word hero because it seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war. Um, and, I don't want to obviously desecrate or disrespect memory of anyone that's fallen, and obviously there are individual circumstances in which there is genuine, tremendous heroism, you know, hail of gunfire, rescuing fellow soldiers and things like that. But it seems to me that we marshal this word in a way that is problematic. But maybe I'm wrong about that.

  Chris Hayes

  Memories, War, Hero

  "MSNBC host apologizes after saying he's 'uncomfortable' calling fallen soldiers heroes", www.foxnews.com. May 28, 2012.

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• PERFORMING TRIBUTE 9/11 shows the heroism of people who have chosen to respond to devastation and hatred with quiet determination and a belief that they can and will make the world a better place.

  Michael Arad

  Determination, People, Hatred

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• Secrets can remind us of the countless human dramas, of frailty and heroism playing out silently in the lives of people all around us.

  Frank Warren

  Motivation, Drama, Inspiration

  "Half a million secrets". TED conference, www.ted.com. February 2012.

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• We are moving away from the old idea of leadership - leadership has less to do (now) with heroism. We don't look for... unblemished omnipotent heroes, but leaders who are complex, dependent, changeable... We do not need one dominant authority structure telling all our inner voices to shut up.

  Walter Truett Anderson

  Moving, Hero, Ideas

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• Heroism is a matter of integrity--beco ming more and more at each step ourselves.

  Joseph Campbell

  Integrity, Matter, Steps

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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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• What is the commonest, and yet the least remembered form of heroism? The heroism of an average mother. Ah! when I think of that broad fact I gather hope again for poor humanity, and this dark world looks bright, this diseased world looks wholesome to me once more, because, whatever else it is or is not full of, it is at least full of mothers.

  Charles Kingsley

  Mother, Dark, Thinking

  "Daily Thoughts".

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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