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.
Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.
The lion who breaks the enemy's ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself.
A hero looks death in the face, real death, not just the image of death.
Marcello Dell'Utri is right: Mangano was a hero, because he never invented anything about me.
"Dr. Johnson was right," said the colonel to me, "Whoever wants to be a hero ought to drink brandy."
It is better to arm and strengthen your hero, than to disarm and enfeeble your foe.
The word hero derives from the root *ser-, from which we also get the word “servant”.