Quote Lady's Quotes by Subject, Heroes and Heroism

Heroes & Heroism

see also Courage

The cowards think of what they can lose, the heroes of what they can win.--J. M. Charlier
The good that Martin Luther King Jr. did remains undiminished ... He was great precisely because, like other heroes, he did not allow human weakness to deter him from doing great works.--Carl McClendon
The hero is known for achievements; the celebrity for well-knowns. The hero reveals the possibilities of human nature. The celebrity reveals the possibilities of the press and media. Celebrities are people who make news, but heroes are people who make history. Time makes heroes but dissolves celebrities.--Daniel J. Boorstin
A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.--Ralph Waldo Emerson
A hero is simply someone who rises above his own human weaknesses, for an hour, a day, a year, to do something stirring.--Betty Deramus
Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves.--Carol Pearson (The Hero Within)
Heroism ... is endurance for one moment more.--George Kennan (Letter to Henry Monroe Rogers, July 25, 1921)
I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel.--Florence Nightingale
I believe it is the nature of people to be heroes, given the chance.--James A. Autry
If we lived in a State where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us good, and greed would make us saintly. And we'd live like animals or angels in the happy land that needs no heroes. But since in fact we see that avarice, anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust and stupidity commonly profit far beyond humility, chastity, fortitude, justice and thought, and have to choose, to be human al all … why then, perhaps we must stand fast a little--even at the risk of being heroes.--Robert Bolt (A Man for All Seasons)
Life, misfortunes, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields which have their heroes; obscure heroes, sometimes, greater than the illustrious heroes.--Victor Hugo (Les Miserables)
My heroes are and were my parents. I can't see having anyone else as my heroes.--Michael Jordan
Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes.--Benjamin Disraeli
One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.--May Sarton
Our tendency to create heroes rarely jibes with the reality that most nontrivial problems require collective solutions.--Warren Bennis
Real heroes are men who fall and fail and are flawed, but win out in the end because they've stayed true to their ideals and beliefs and commitments.--Kevin Costner
Success is achievable without public recognition, and the world has many unsung heroes. The teacher who inspires you to pursue your education to your ultimate ability is a success. The parents who taught you the noblest human principles are a success. The coach who shows you the importance of teamwork is a success. The spiritual leader who instills in you spiritual values and faith is a success. The relatives, friends, and neighbors with whom you develop a reciprocal relationship of respect and support--they, too, are successes. The most menial workers can properly consider themselves successful if they perform their best and if the product of their work is of service to humanity.--Michael DeBakey, M.D. (in Success Secrets of Super Achievers by Stovall)
Time makes heroes but dissolves celebrities.--Daniel Boorstin
A true champion is someone who wants to make a difference, who never gives up, and who gives everything she has no matter what the circumstances are. A true champion works hard and never loses sight of her dreams.--Dot Richardson
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.--Arthur Ashe ("Points to Ponder" Reader's Digest, Aug. 1994)
We are the hero of our own story.--Mary McCarthy
What is a minority? The chosen heroes of this earth have been in a minority. There is not a social, political, or religious privilege that you enjoy today that was not bought for you by the blood and tears and patient suffering of the minority. It is the minority that have stood in the van of every moral conflict, and achieved all that is noble in the history of the world.--John Bartholomew Gough
When the first Superman movie came out I was frequently asked "What is a hero?" …My answer was that a hero is someone who commits a courageous action without considering the consequences… Now my definition is completely different. I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.--Christopher Reeve
When you feel the world is against you or you give up hope, you look at your heroes and say, "They were able to do it. They had hard times and a lot of opposition, but they got through it." Then you feel, "I can do it too."--John Leguizamo ("Who Are Our Heroes?" Parade Magazine, Aug. 6, 1995)
Who is a hero? He who turns his enemy into a friend.--The Talmud
Without heroes, we're all plain people and don't know how far we can go.--Bernard Malamud (The Natural)
The world has no room for cowards. We must all be ready somehow to toil, to suffer, to die. And yours is not the less noble because no drum beats before you when you go out into your daily battlefields, and no crowds shout about your coming when you return from your daily victory or defeat.--Robert Louis Stevenson
The world is moved not only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.--Helen Keller