Quotes about hero
page 7

Wu Den-yih photo

“Both sides (Taiwan and Mainland China) are so lovely and so many of their people are behaving like heroes and heroines, and yet Taiwan's former ambition to 'recover the mainland' has become a thing of the past.”

Wu Den-yih (1948) Taiwanese politician

Wu Den-yih (2016) cited in: " Ex-VP calls on China 'not to widen distance' with Taiwanese http://focustaiwan.tw/news/acs/201610030023.aspx" in Focus Taiwan, 3 October 2016.

Ayn Rand photo
Sania Mirza photo
Richard Evelyn Byrd photo

“A static hero is a public liability. Progress grows out of motion.”

Richard Evelyn Byrd (1888–1957) Medal of Honor recipient and United States Navy officer

As quoted in Struggle : The Life and Exploits of Commander Richard E. Byrd (1928) by Charles John Vincent Murphy, p. 325

Sister Nivedita photo
Eugène Edine Pottier photo

“The kings made us drunk with fumes,
Peace among us, war to the tyrants!
Let the armies go on strike,
Stocks in the air, and break ranks.
If they insist, these cannibals
On making heroes of us,
They will know soon that our bullets
Are for our own generals.”

Eugène Edine Pottier (1816–1887) French politician

Les rois nous saoulaient de fumées
Paix entre nous, guerre aux tyrans
Appliquons la grève aux armées
Crosse en l'air, et rompons les rangs
S'ils s'obstinent, ces cannibales
À faire de nous des héros
Ils sauront bientôt que nos balles
Sont pour nos propres généraux
The Internationale (1864)

Buster Keaton photo

“Our hero came from Nowhere — he wasn't going Anywhere and he got kicked off Somewhere.”

Buster Keaton (1895–1966) American actor and filmmaker

The High Sign (1921, co-written with Edward F. Cline)

Thomas Carlyle photo
Olly Blackburn photo

“I suppose my mega heroes are the films of Michael Powell and Sam Peckinpah. I would have loved to have looked over their shoulder. I’m a bit of a cinephile. I love cinema. It’s an amazing medium. I can go and watch anything from very, very arty films to huge Hollywood spectaculars and everything in between.”

Olly Blackburn Film director and screenwriter

[IndieLondon, Donkey Punch - Olly Blackburn interview, http://www.indielondon.co.uk/Film-Review/donkey-punch-olly-blackburn-interview, www.indielondon.co.uk, 23 February 2012, 2008]

Sören Kierkegaard photo
Halldór Laxness photo
Rex Stout photo
Richard Rumelt photo
P. L. Travers photo

“The Irish, as a race, have the oral tradition in their blood. A direct question to them is an anathema, but in other cases, a mere syllable of a hero's name will elicit whole chapters of stories.”

P. L. Travers (1899–1996) Australian-British novelist, actress and journalist

As quoted in No Word for Time: The Way of the Algonquin People (2001) by Evan T. Pritchard

Roberto Clemente photo

“The first hero that I have … I would say was Monte Irvin, when I was a kid. And I used to watch Monte Irvin play when I was a kid – I idolized him. I used to wait in front of the ballpark just for him to pass by so I could see him.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

From A Conversation with Clemente (aired October 8, 1972); this and other excerpts were reproduced in Roberto Clemente: The Great One https://books.google.com/books?id=03XsO25A3I8C&pg=PA5 (1998) by Bruce Markusen, p. 5
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1972</big>

Bei Dao photo

“I am no hero
In an age without heroes
I just want to be a man”

Bei Dao (1949) contemporary Chinese (PRC) avant garde poet

"Declaration", p. 62
The August Sleepwalker (1990)

Marino Marini photo

“Heroes do not easily tolerate the company of other heroes.”

Kenneth Clark (1903–1983) Art historian, broadcaster and museum director

Source: Civilisation (1969), Ch. 5: The Hero as Artist

William H. Gass photo
Antonio Llidó photo
Lois McMaster Bujold photo
James Macpherson photo
Muhammad bin Qasim photo
William H. Prescott photo
Herbert Marcuse photo
Robert Menzies photo
Harun Yahya photo

“A hero is awaited for 1400 years, and that is Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh). And also the Prophet Jesus Messiah”

Harun Yahya (1956) Turkish author

pbuh
20 April 2013.
A9 TV addresses, 2013

Anthony Trollope photo
Halldór Laxness photo
Ilana Mercer photo
Waheeda Rehman photo
Gerard Manley Hopkins photo

“Our Lord Jesus Christ, my brethren, is our hero, a hero all the world wants.”

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) English poet

Sermon (23 November 1879)
Letters, etc

Christopher Reeve photo

“What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely.”

Christopher Reeve (1952–2004) actor, director, producer, screenwriter

As quoted in Celebrities in Hell (2002) by Warren Allen Smith, p. 98

Michel Foucault photo
William H. McNeill photo
Aron Ra photo

“I wasn’t really a fan of kaiju, (giant Japanese monsters) only Godzilla himself. He was my hero as a boy, and even now his roar has been my only ring tone any of the cell phones I have ever had.”

Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast

Patheos, Weighing in on Godzilla http://www.patheos.com/blogs/reasonadvocates/2014/06/08/weighing-in-on-godzilla/ (June 8, 2014)

Julius Fučík (journalist) photo

“Their fear deepened with the night as they beheld the face of the heavens turning and the mountains and all places rapt from view and all around thick darkness. The very stillness of Nature, the silent constellations in the heavens, the firmament starred with streaming meteors filled them with fear. And as a traveller by night overtaken in some unknown spot upon the road keeps ear and eye alert, while the darkening landscape to left and right and trees looming up with shadows strangely huge do but make heavier the terrors of night, even so the heroes quailed.”
Auxerat hora metus, iam se vertentis Olympi ut faciem raptosque simul montesque locosque ex oculis circumque graves videre tenebras. ipsa quies rerum mundique silentia terrent astraque et effusis stellatus crinibus aether; ac velut ignota captus regione viarum noctivagum qui carpit iter non aure quiescit, non oculis, noctisque metus niger auget utrimque campus et occurrens umbris maioribus arbor, haud aliter trepidare viri.

Auxerat hora metus, iam se vertentis Olympi
ut faciem raptosque simul montesque locosque
ex oculis circumque graves videre tenebras.
ipsa quies rerum mundique silentia terrent
astraque et effusis stellatus crinibus aether;
ac velut ignota captus regione viarum
noctivagum qui carpit iter non aure quiescit,
non oculis, noctisque metus niger auget utrimque
campus et occurrens umbris maioribus arbor,
haud aliter trepidare viri.
Source: Argonautica, Book II, Lines 38–47

Jesse Ventura photo
Sri Aurobindo photo

“O soldier and hero of God, where for thee is sorrow or shame or suffering? For thy life is a glory, thy deeds a consecration, victory thy apotheosis, defeat thy triumph.”

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

Thoughts and Aphorisms (1913), Karma

Harun Yahya photo
George W. Bush photo
Thomas Carlyle photo

“Unless some Hero-worship, in its new appropriate form, can return, this world does not promise to be very habitable long.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1840s, Past and Present (1843)

Shashi Tharoor photo
Robert Crumb photo

“My generation comes from a world that has been molded by crass TV programs, movies, comic books, popular music, advertisements and commercials. My brain is a huge garbage dump of all this stuff and it is this, mainly, that my work comes out of, for better or for worse. I hope that whatever synthesis I make of all this crap contains something worthwhile, that it's something other than just more smarmy entertainment—or at least, that it's genuine high quality entertainment. I also hope that perhaps it's revealing of something, maybe. On the other hand, I want to avoid becoming pretentious in the eagerness to give my work deep meanings! I have an enormous ego and must resist the urge to come on like a know-it-all. Some of the imagery in my work is sorta scary because I'm basically a fearful, pessimistic person. I'm always seeing the predatory nature of the universe, which can harm you or kill you very easily and very quickly, no matter how well you watch your step. The way I see it, we are all just so much chopped liver. We have this great gift of human intelligence to help us pick our way through this treacherous tangle, but unfortunately we don't seem to value it very much. Most of us are not brought up in environments that encourage us to appreciate and cultivate our intelligence. To me, human society appears mostly to be a living nightmare of ignorant, depraved behavior. We're all depraved, me included. I can't help it if my work reflects this sordid view of the world. Also, I feel that I have to counteract all the lame, hero-worshipping crap that is dished out by the mass-media in a never-ending deluge.”

Robert Crumb (1943) American cartoonist

The R. Crumb Handbook by Robert Crumb and Peter Poplaski (2005), p. 363

Graham Greene photo
André Maurois photo
Jehst photo

“I stand in the blistering heat as the epitome
of the anti-hero
Stitchin' up my injuries and flippin' imagery
, mixing toxins 'til I'm lost in the synergy”

Jehst (1979) British rapper

High Plains Anthem
The Return of the Drifter EP (2002)

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“And so I say to you today, my friends, that you may be able to speak with the tongues of men and angels; you may have the eloquence of articulate speech; but if you have not love, it means nothing. Yes, you may have the gift of prophecy; you may have the gift of scientific prediction and understand the behavior of molecules; you may break into the storehouse of nature and bring forth many new insights; yes, you may ascend to the heights of academic achievement so that you have all knowledge; and you may boast of your great institutions of learning and the boundless extent of your degrees; but if you have not love, all of these mean absolutely nothing. You may even give your goods to feed the poor; you may bestow great gifts to charity; and you may tower high in philanthropy; but if you have not love, your charity means nothing. You may even give your body to be burned and die the death of a martyr, and your spilt blood may be a symbol of honor for generations yet unborn, and thousands may praise you as one of history's greatest heroes; but if you have not love, your blood was spilt in vain. What I'm trying to get you to see this morning is that a man may be self-centered in his self-denial and self-righteous in his self-sacrifice. His generosity may feed his ego, and his piety may feed his pride. So without love, benevolence becomes egotism, and martyrdom becomes spiritual pride.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

George W. Bush photo
Bill Maher photo
David Hume photo
James Macpherson photo
Joseph Campbell photo
Penn Jillette photo
George Raymond Richard Martin photo

“Nobody is a villain in their own story. We're all the heroes of our own stories.”

George Raymond Richard Martin (1948) American writer, screenwriter and television producer

"George R. R. Martin Interview GAME OF THRONES" http://collider.com/george-r-r-martin-interview-game-of-thrones/ by Christina Radish, Collider (17 April 2011)

George Lucas photo
Anne Rice photo
Jean de La Bruyère photo

“The whole landscape flashes while the hero now wraps about his body the fleece with its starry tufts of hair, now shifts it to his neck, now folds it upon his left arm.”
Micat omnis ager villisque comantem sidereis totos pellem nunc fundit in artus, nunc in colla refert, nunc implicat ille sinistrae.

Source: Argonautica, Book VIII, Lines 122–124

Ilana Mercer photo

“A propagandized population has a hard time choosing worthy heroes. It is high time Americans celebrate the Anti-Federalists, for they were correct in predicting the fate of freedom after Philadelphia.”

Ilana Mercer South African writer

"Anti-Federalists Prophesied the End of Freedom" http://www.americandailyherald.com/pundits/ilana-mercer/item/anti-federalists-prophesied-the-end-of-freedom, American Daily Herald, December 9, 2013.
2010s, 2013

“He delighted in the role of a hero, he loved Sarajevo and he loved money.”

Jusuf Prazina (1962–1993) Bosnian mobster

Unidentified Sarajevo lawyer. http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/serbian_digest/120/t120-5.htm

George Chakiris photo

“My personal way to be a hero… is to be a vegetarian.”

George Chakiris (1934) American dancer, singer and actor

At the pre-show of the musical Loving the Silent Tears, as quoted in "That Musical About Veganism Starring Jon Secada and Based on the Poetry of Supreme Master Ching Hai, Explained", LA Weekly (October 30, 2012) http://www.laweekly.com/arts/that-musical-about-veganism-starring-jon-secada-and-based-on-the-poetry-of-supreme-master-ching-hai-explained-2373111.

Matthew Stover photo
Paras Khadka photo

“There were new heroes in every game and that showed that every player was excited as well as determined to win matches.”

Paras Khadka (1987) Nepalese Cricket team captain

Cricketers get heroes welcome The Himalayan Times; February 2018 https://thehimalayantimes.com/sports/cricketers-get-heroes-welcome/

Jerry Siegel photo
M. K. Hobson photo
Robin Lane Fox photo

“Olympia's royal ancestry traced back to the hero Achilles, and the blood of Helen of Troy was believed to run on her father's side.”

Robin Lane Fox (1946) Historian, educator, writer, gardener

Source: Alexander the Great, 1973, p.44

Orson Scott Card photo

“Secularism per se is a doctrine which arose in the modem West as a revolt against the closed creed of Christianity. Its battle-cry was that the State should be freed from the stranglehold of the Church, and the citizen should be left to his own individual choice in matters of belief. And it met with great success in every Western democracy. Had India borrowed this doctrine from the modem West, it would have meant a rejection of the closed creeds of Islam and Christianity, and a promotion of the Sanatana Dharma family of faiths which have been naturally secularist in the modern Western sense. But what happened actually was that Secularism in India became the greatest protector of closed creeds which had come here in the company of foreign invaders, and kept tormenting the national society for several centuries.
We should not, therefore, confuse India's Secularism with its namesake in the modern West. The Secularism which Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru propounded and which has prospered in post-independence India, is a new concoction and should be recognized as such. We need not bother about its various definitions as put forward by its pandits. We shall do better if we have a close look at its concrete achievements.
Going by those achievements, one can conclude quite safely that Nehruvian Secularism is a magic formula for transmitting base metals into twenty-four carat gold. How else do we explain the fact of Islam becoming a religion, and that too a religion of tolerance, social equality, and human brotherhood; or the fact of Muslim rule in medieval India becoming an indigenous dispensation; or the fact of Muhammad bin Qasim becoming a liberator of the toiling masses in Sindh; or the fact of Mahmud Ghaznavi becoming the defreezer of productive wealth hoarded in Hindu temples; or the fact of Muhammad Ghuri becoming the harbinger of an urban revolution; or the fact of Muinuddin Chishti becoming the great Indian saint; or the fact of Amir Khusru becoming the pioneer of communal amity; or the fact of Alauddin Khilji becoming the first socialist in the annals of this country; or the fact of Akbar becoming the father of Indian nationalism; or the fact of Aurangzeb becoming the benefactor of Hindu temples; or the fact of Sirajuddaula, Mir Qasim, Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan, and Bahadur Shah Zafar becoming the heroes of India's freedom struggle against British imperialism or the fact of the Faraizis, the Wahabis, and the Moplahs becoming peasant revolutionaries and foremost freedom fighters?
One has only to go to the original sources in order to understand the true character of Islam and its above-mentioned luminaries. And one can see immediately that their true character has nothing to do with that with which they have been invested in our school and college text-books. No deeper probe is needed for unraveling the mysteries of Nehruvian Secularism.”

Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003) Indian activist

Tipu Sultan - Villain or Hero (1993)

Jean Paul Sartre photo
Michelle Obama photo
Bruce Springsteen photo
Neil Peart photo
Joey Comeau photo
William James photo
Muhammad of Ghor photo

“The editor introduces Muhammad Ghuri in the Taj-ul-Maasir of Hasan Nizami as follows: 'After dwelling on the advantage and necessity of holy wars, without which the fold of Muhammad's flock could never be filled, he says that such a hero as these obligations of religion require has been found, 'during the reign of the lord of the world Mu'izzu-d dunya wau-d din, the Sultan of Sultans, Abu-l Muzaffar Muhammad bin Sam bin Husain' the destroyer of infidels and plural-worshippers etc.,' and that Almighty Allah had selected him from amongst the kings and emperors of the time, 'for he had employed himself in extirpating the enemies of religion and the state, and had deluged the land of Hind with the blood of their hearts, so that to the very day of resurrection travellers would have to pass over pools of gore in boats, - had taken every fort and stronghold which he attacked, and ground its foundations and pillars to powder under the feet of fierce and gigantic elephants, - had sent the whole world of idolatry to the fire of hell, by the well-watered blade of his Hindi sword, - had founded mosques and colleges in the places of images and idols'.'The narrative proceeds: 'Having equipped and set in order the army of Islam, and unfurled the standards of victory and the flags of power, trusting in the aid of the Almighty, he proceeded towards Hindustan…”

Muhammad of Ghor (1160–1206) Ghurid Sultan

Elliot and Dowson, Vol. II : Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, 8 Volumes, Allahabad Reprint, 1964. pp. 209-212. Quoted in Sita Ram Goel : The Calcutta Quran Petition, ch. 6.

Patrick Buchanan photo
John McCain photo
Phil Brooks photo

“I told you so. Seems like I'm out here a lot saying that to you people, right? I know it seems like a lot, but the truth is i said that i would beat Jeff, and i did. I told you so. I said that i would get rid of Jeff Hardy FOREVER, and i did. I told you so. And then i said i would make The Undertaker tap out to the Anaconda Vice, and you laughed! But then i did just that. And contrary to what you people believe, i didn't come out here to brag about becoming the first and ONLY man in history to make the Phenom, The Undertaker, tap out. I came out here to confront The Undertaker. I came out here to confront The Undertaker in MY ring, or my yard, if you will. I came out here to stick MY World Heavyweight Championship in his face, and look him in the eye, and say to him, I TOLD YOU SO! But, of course, he's conveniently not here right now, so instead, i think i'll address all of you people. It's come to my attention that you people think I have been preaching to you. Alright, we'll call a space a spade. The truth is, YES i have. Because you people need a good preaching to. You people need somebody you can look up to, you need a leader who isn't morally corrupt, and you need someone that's righteous, not self-righteous. And i know what your all gonna do next, your gonna do exactly what your hero, the Undertaker, did, your gonna give up! Hell, by the looks at half of you, you already have. I mean, what kind of life is it that you live? What kind of existence do you have where you wake up in the morning and you have to pop a pill to help crawl out of bed? And then, then you ravage your body with pitchers of beer, and that's supposed to somehow heal your broken self-worth. And then you just make excuses about inhaling poison into your lungs just to calm your nerves. And then, at the end of your sad, pathetic, lonely day, your in need of another pill to make you forget everything. You need a pill to help you sleep. (The crowd boos as Punk mouths "you make me sick") You are all just a legion of inebriated zombies, waiting in line at the pharmacy with your hand out, begging and pleading for that newest anti-depressant that you think is going to put an artificial smile on your face. You scratch and you claw for scapegoats for all of your inadequacies, and believe me, you have a LOT of inadequacies. And don't tell me that you self medicate yourself to forget about it all, don't tell me you don't self medicate to hide from all your inadequacies, don't tell me you don't do it. Because if you do, well then your a liar too. Your lying to yourself, your lying to yourselves right now. Your lying to the person next to you, you go home and you lie to your family, and it's insulting because right now your lying to ME. And i can see right through all of you people and your lies, because i am not a liar. I am a man who means what he says and says what he means. What i am is a prophet, i am the choice of a new generation, i am a champion that everybody can finally be proud of, i am the first and only straight-edge World Heavyweight Champion in history. And if your not straight-edge like me, well, that just means i'm better than you!”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

September 18, 2009
Friday Night SmackDown

Benjamin Franklin photo

“In 200 years will people remember us as traitors or heros? That is the question we must ask.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

Letter to Thomas Jefferson (March 16th, 1775).
Epistles

Camille Paglia photo
Jim Belushi photo
Karen Blixen photo
Teresa de Lauretis photo
Christopher Walken photo

“Well, I don't play heroes obviously. I never played the guy who gets the girl. It might be interesting to do a part where I was a father in a functional family.”

Christopher Walken (1943) American actor

Hap Erstein (October 29, 2004) "Walken Doesn't Mind Playing Creepy Type - As Long As He's Cast", The Palm Beach Post, p. 9.

Peter Hitchens photo
Ursula K. Le Guin photo