“True heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and care—with no one there to see or cheer. This is the world.”
Source: The Pale King
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
David Foster Wallace 185
American fiction writer and essayist 1962–2008Related quotes
Testimony before the Constitutional Affairs Committee http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmconst/uc1247-i/uc124702.htm, November 9, 2004
King Henry, Act II, scene v.
Henry VI, Part 3 (1592)
“I recommend you to take care of the minutes: for hours will take care of themselves.”
1747
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
Variant: I recommend you to take care of the minutes: for hours will take care of themselves.
As quoted in The Wilson Era; Years of War and After, 1917–1923 (1946) by Josephus Daniels, p. 624. Referenced in "Bartleby.com" http://www.bartleby.com/73/1288.html
1920s and later
Excerpts from 1966 press conference, in Baseball: 8th Inning – A Whole New Ballgame https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ouIk6RvUl8 (1994) by Ken Burns, Geoffrey C. Ward
Context: I don’t know if cortisone is good for you or not. But to take a shot every other ball game is more than I wanted to do and to walk around with a constant upset stomach because of the pills and to be high half the time during a ball game because you’re taking painkillers … I don’t want to have to do that [... ] I don't regret one minute of the last 12 years but I think I would regret the one year that was too many.
"Under No Circumstances Will Michelle Yeoh Be Serving a Christmas Turkey" in Vogue (19 November 2019) https://www.vogue.com/article/michelle-yeoh-interview-last-christmas
