Heroic Quotes

• 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

  Memorial Day, Courage, Hero

  "Worth Repeating: More Than 5,000 Classic and Contemporary Quotes" by Bob Kelly, p. 169, 2003.

  105 Copy quote

  Show source

• True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life, in whatever shape they may challenge us to combat.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Life, Sports, Hero

  23 Copy quote

• But whoso is heroic will always find crises to try his edge.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Hero, Trying, Crisis

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.353, Рипол Классик

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Tragedy enlightens - and it must, in that it points the heroic finger at the enemy of man's freedom. The thrust for freedom is the quality in tragedy which exalts. The revolutionary questioning of the stable environment is what terrifies.

  Arthur Miller

  Men, Enemy, Tragedy

  Arthur Miller (2016). “The Collected Essays of Arthur Miller”, p.9, Bloomsbury Publishing

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Happiness is not fame or riches or heroic virtues, but a state that will inspire posterity to think in reflecting upon our life, that it was the life they would wish to live.

  Herodotus

  Thinking, Reflecting Upon, Inspire

  12 Copy quote

• What makes one heroic? - Going out to meet at the same time one's highest suffering and one's highest hope.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Suffering, Going Out, Highest

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2010). “The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs”, p.219, Vintage

  16 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.

  Christopher Reeve

  Inspirational, Motivational, Strength

  "Still Me". Book by Christopher Reeve, 1999.

  137 Copy quote

  Show source

• As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Single, Inspiration

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.27, Heron Dance Press

  343 Copy quote

  Show source

• To be really great in little things, to be truly noble and heroic in the insipid details of everyday life, is a virtue so rare as to be worthy of canonization.

  Harriet Beecher Stowe

  Cute, Everyday, Excellence

  Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Beecher STOWE (2016). “Collected Works (Complete and Illustrated Editions: Uncle Tom's Cabin, Queer Little Folks, The Chimney-Corner, ...)”, p.645, Harriet Beecher Stowe

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• In a truly heroic life there is no peradventure. It is always doing or dying.

  Roswell Dwight Hitchcock

  Hero, Dying, Heroism

  9 Copy quote

• He would still see it as his duty to shut up and get on with it, not cause any trouble. In our own time we've made a hero of the rebel, and it's more heroic to speak up.

  Eddie Campbell

  Hero, Uprising, Rebel

  5 Copy quote

• An artist's fine goal is to manifest a well-nigh heroic self-discipline, carefully attending to all that concerns him.

  Eric Maisel

  Artist, Self, Discipline

  Eric Maisel (1996). “Affirmations for Artists”, Tarcher

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is by no means necessary that a great nation should always stand at the heroic level. But no nation has the root of greatness in it unless in time of need it can rise to the heroic mood.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Mean, Greatness, Roots

  Theodore Roosevelt (2005). “Fear God and Take Your Own Part”, p.350, Cosimo, Inc.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Courtesy is a silver lining around the dark clouds of civilization; it is the best part of refinement and in many ways, an art of heroic beauty in the vast gallery of man's cruelty and baseness.

  Bryant H. McGill

  Art, Dark, Men

  70 Copy quote

• Failures to heroic minds are the stepping stones to success.

  Thomas Chandler Haliburton

  Inspirational, Precious Stones, Mind

  50 Copy quote

• The most heroic word in all languages is REVOLUTION.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Struggle, Revolution, Language

  "Revolution" by Eugene V. Debs in "New York Worker", www.marxists.org. April 27, 1907.

  83 Copy quote

  Show source

• Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.

  Thomas Merton

  Peace, War, Sacrifice

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

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

  Alfred Lord Tennyson

  Strong, Taken, Heart

  "Ulysses" l. 65 (1842)

  206 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are people who can do all fine and heroic things but one - keep from telling their happiness to the unhappy.

  Mark Twain

  Happiness, Happy, People

  Mark Twain (2000). “The Jumping Frog: And 18 Other Stories”, p.103, Book Tree

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• I did stand-up comedy for 18 years. Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four years were spent in wild success. I was seeking comic originality, and fame fell on me as a byproduct. The course was more plodding than heroic.

  Steve Martin

  Years, Four, Comedy

  "Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life". Book by Steve Martin, www.npr.org. November 20, 2007.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• What is a hero without love for mankind.

  Doris Lessing

  Love, Hero, Mankind

  16 Copy quote

• Christianity is not the faith of the complacent, the comfortable or of the timid. It demands and creates heroic souls like Wesley, Wilberforce, Bonhoeffer, John Paul the Second, and Billy Graham. Each showed, in their own way, the relentless and powerful influence of the message of Jesus Christ.

  Mitt Romney

  Jesus, Powerful, Soul

  "Mitt Romney's Religious Act of Political Accommodation" by Charles P. Pierce, www.esquire.com. May 14, 2012.

  15 Copy quote

  Show source

• Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes over night. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Strength, Being Strong, Running

  Eleanor Roosevelt (1960). “You Learn by Living”, p.41, Westminster John Knox Press

  60 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Thomas Merton

  Peace, Sacrifice, Heroism

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

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• One would like to be grand and heroic, if one could; but if not, why try at all? One wants to be very something, very great, very heroic; or if not that, then at least very stylish and very fashionable. It is this everlasting mediocrity that bores me.

  Harriet Beecher Stowe

  Trying, Mediocrity, Literature

  Harriet Beecher Stowe (1896). “Household papers and stories”

  21 Copy quote

  Show source