Heroes Quotes

Emerson and Carlyle, who both wrote on the hero, lead the page, followed by Warren Farrell, Gordon Lightfoot and Robert Jordan. The best-known sourced line is Brecht’s, from Life of Galileo (1939): Andrea says, “Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero,” and Galileo answers, “Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.” Nassim Taleb, in Fooled by Randomness (2001), says heroes are heroic in behavior, not because they won or lost. Jean Paul wrote that the grandest heroic deeds are done within four walls.

“What is a hero without love for mankind?” is credited to Doris Lessing and flagged misattributed. The notes give the real source: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Philotas (1759). The cockroach-and-butterfly line credited to Nietzsche is also misattributed.