Your son learns the “hero paradox”: to value himself by not valuing himself.
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.
The traditional male hero is about self-sacrifice, not self-actualization.
America desperately needed a hero, and Douglas MacArthur was the man of the hour.
He never wanted to be regarded as a hero or leader, and he never had political ambitions.
The ordinary man is involved in action, the hero acts. An immense difference.
The hero withdrew and betook himself for a space to his companions, waiting.
Everybody wanted to be the hero of their own story. Nobody wanted to be comic relief.
As all the world the hero's exploits sings,
So should good deeds the glory be of kings.
Jack was embarrassed — never hero more,
And as he knew not what to say, he swore.
Circumstances make the hero, but everyday courage makes the righteous man.