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You can define heroism any way you want to, but that’s it for me. It’s sticking in there no matter what. Whether it’s a pilot fighting his plane down through that last mile, or switchboard operators and doctors and nurses staying at their posts while the bombs blitz London, or even the dance band on the Titanic playing while the ship goes down…
It’s fulfilling your responsibilities.

— John Varley Millennium (1983)

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Heroes

More quotes by John Varley

The nice thing about being a pessimist is that bittersweet is an improvement.

Millennium (1983)

They understood the basic principles of morals: that nothing is moral always, and anything is moral under the right circumstances.

Like plugging into life-support equipment, I view apologizing as a dangerous vice that can take over your whole life if you give in to it.

Millennium (1983)

Predestination is the ugliest word in any human language.

Millennium (1983)

I found that it is much more pleasurable to read adventures than to live them.

The Ophiuchi Hotline (1977)

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Heroing is one of the shortest-lived professions there is.

Will Rogers

The grandest of heroic deeds are those which are performed within four walls and in domestic privacy.

Jean Paul Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

The blood of the heroes is closer to God than the ink of the philosophers and the prayers of the faithful.

Julius Evola Revolt Against the Modern World (1934)

Heroism is a myth you tell idealistic young people—specifically when you want them to go bleed for you.

Brandon Sanderson Rhythm of War (2020)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Varley (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.