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Heroism Quotes

Browse 702 quotes about Heroism.

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Heroism Quotes

“These are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.”

MindHeartStillsCharacterFormWishQualityVirtueGeniusHeroHabitSceneDifficultyLaysRaisedCalmStationsHeroismCarpe DiemAnimatedStatesmenVigorousPacificReposeCarpeDormantGreat CharacterContending
Author:Abigail Adams
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“I can easily believe it. Women of that class have great opportunities, and if they are intelligent may be well worth listening to. Such varieites of human nature as they are in the habit of witnessing! And it is not merely in its follies, that they are read; for they see it occasionally under every circumstance that can be most interesting or affecting. What instances must pass before them of ardent, disinterested, self-denying attachment, of heroism, fortitude, patience, resignation-- of all the sacrifices that ennoble us most. A sick chamber may often furnish the worth of volumes.”

IfsBelieveHumansWellsMayI CanSelfOpportunityInterestingClassSacrificeHuman NatureListeningHabitCircumstancesSickIntelligentInstanceFollyAttachmentHeroismVolumeFortitudeChamberMost InterestingResignationArdentGreat OpportunityDisinterestedAnne Elliot
Author:Jane Austen
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“Long ago I yearned to be a hero without knowing, in truth, what a hero was. Now, perhaps, I understand it a little better. A grower of turnips or a shaper of clay, a Commot farmer or a king--every man is a hero if he strives more for others than for himself alone. Once you told me that the seeking counts more than the finding. So, too, must the striving count more than the gain.”

IfsMenLittlesLongKnowingKingsHeroFindingsGainsStriveSeekingEvery ManFarmersHeroismLong AgoStrifeClayTurnips
Book:The High King: The Chronicles of Prydain
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“The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not weakly try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be the common, nor the common the heroic.”

MenWorldTryingCommonHeroFitGenuineWanderGenerosityImpulseCharacteristicsHeroicHeroismReconcileGreat PerseveranceBeing A HeroGreat Hero
Book:Essays and English Traits by Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Five Foot Shelf of Classics, Vol. V (in 51 Volumes)
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“All the stories and descriptions of that time without exception peak only of the patriotism, self-sacrifice, despair, grief, and heroism of the Russians. But in reality it was not like that...The majority of the people paid no attention to the general course of events but were influenced only by their immediate personal interests.”

PeopleSelfStoriesRealityCoursesInterestGriefAttentionSacrificeEventsDespairPaidMajorityDescriptionExceptionHeroismSelf SacrificePersonal Interest
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“There is a kind of expressed love which is easy to subvert. When a figure is loved for their deeds, their conquests, their heroism, their goodness, their love of the people, these are easy enough to destroy... But there is a kind of love which is felt for apparently no reason... A love, inspired, it seems, by the gods, which it is impossible to fight, distort, destroy, or weaken. In fact, the attempts to destroy such loves only strengthen them. And to do nothing allows them to continue to grow at their natural pace, inexoribly, till this love becomes a wide and silent adoration.”

PeopleKindReasonEnoughFactsSeemsFightingGrowsFeltEasyNaturalImpossibleFiguresGoodnessSilentInspiredDeedsWideNo ReasonPaceHeroismConquestAdorationKinds Of Love
Author:Ben Okri
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“Heroes didn't leap tall buildings or stop bullets with an outstretched hand; they didn't wear boots and capes. They bled, and they bruised, and their superpowers were as simple as listening, or loving. Heroes were ordinary people who knew that even if their own lives were impossibly knotted, they could untangle someone else's. And maybe that one act could lead someone to rescue you right back.”

PeopleIfsHandsCommunitySimpleBuildingListeningHeroOrdinaryLeapTallBootsHeroismRescueBulletsOrdinary PeopleSuperpowerBruisedCapesTall Buildings
Book:Second Glance
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“And why does it make you sad to see how everything hangs by such thin and whimsical threads? Because you’re a dreamer, an incredible dreamer, with a tiny spark hidden somewhere inside you which cannot die, which even you cannot kill or quench and which tortures you horribly because all the odds are against its continual burning. In the midst of the foulest decay and putrid savagery, this spark speaks to you of beauty, of human warmth and kindness, of goodness, of greatness, of heroism, of martyrdom, and it speaks to you of love.”

LoveHumansDoeAgeDiesSpeakKindnessGreatnessGoodnessIncrediblesTinyBurningTortureMidstWarmthSparksDreamerHeroismDecayOddsThreadMartyrdomSavageryQuenchWhimsical
Author:Eldridge Cleaver
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“...it is only when a man goes out into the world with the thought that there are heroisms all round him, and with the desire all alive in his heart to follow any which may come within sight of him, that he breaks away... from the life he knows, and ventures forth into the wonderful mystic twilight land where lie the great adventures and the great rewards.”

KnowsMenWorldHeartMayLyingDesireBreakAliveWonderfulLandAdventureSightRewardsRoundsTwilightHeroismVentureMysticGreat AdventureGreat Reward
Book:The Lost World: Sherlock Holmes Collections
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“This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!”

HateNamesViolenceWorstMilitaryOughtCivilizationI HateSpeedCommandSpotsNonsenseHeroismTopicsPlagueHerdsPatriotism And NationalismPatriotism And WarSenseless Violence
Book:Ideas and Opinions
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“She was one of those people who was born for the greatness of a single love, for exaggerated hatred, for apocalyptic vengance, and for the most sublime forms of heroism but she was unable to shape her fate to the dimensions of her amorous vocation, so it was lived out as something flat and gray trapped between her mother's sickroom walls, wretched tenements, and the tortured confessions with which this large, opulent, hot-blooded woman made for maternity, abundance, action, and ardor- was consuming herself.”

PeopleMadeActionFormMotherBornFateGreatnessWallShapesHatredHotAbundanceDimensionsFlatsGrayConfessionHeroismTrappedSublimeVocationWretchedConsumingExaggeratedApocalypticArdorMaternityAmorousTenements
Author:Isabel Allende
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“You and I, we must carry on, Gemma. I cannot afford the luxury of love. I must marry well. And now I must look after you. It is my duty." "If you wish to suffer, you do so of your own free will, not on my behalf. Or Father's or Grandmama's or anyone's. You are a fine physician, Thomas. Why is that not enough?" "Because it isn't," he says with a rare candor. "Only this and the hope of nothing more? A quiet respectability with no true greatness or heroism in it, with only my reputation to recommend me. So you see, Gemma, you are not the only one who cannot rule her own life.”

IfsWellsLooksEnoughSufferingFatherWishGreatnessDutyFineQuietReputationLuxuryFree WillHeroismPhysiciansBehalfCandorRespectabilityTrue Greatness
Author:Libba Bray
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“We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”

PeopleWorldLifeInspirationalActionPeaceProcessChangeMillionsTransformationChanging The WorldHeroicHeroismParticipationEngagingMaking ChangesSmall ActsProcess Of ChangeSmall VictoriesSmall WinsHeroic Acts
Book:You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
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“Intimacy, says the phenomenologist Gaston Bachelard, is the highest value. I resist this statement at first. What about artistic achievement, or moral courage, or heroism, or altruistic acts, or work in the cause of social change? What about wealth or accomplishment? And yet something about it rings true, finally—that what we want is to be brought into relationship, to be inside, within. Perhaps it’s true that nothing matters more to us than that.”

WantFirstsMatterValuesSocialCausesWealthMoralAchievementHighestRingsStatementsArtisticIntimacyAccomplishmentHeroismSocial ChangeMoral CourageNothing MattersGaston
Book:Still Life with Oysters and Lemon: On Objects and Intimacy
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