c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Only God can tell a truly plausible lie.
— Eliezer Yudkowsky, Rationality: From AI to Zombies
We lie to ourselves about the smallest details, and we lie to ourselves about our largest life choices.
— Cortney S. Warren, Lies We Tell Ourselves: The Psychology of Self-Deception
As a clinical psychologist, I am regularly confronted with the brutal truth that we are all lie.
— Cortney S. Warren, Lies We Tell Ourselves: The Psychology of Self-Deception
They taught you to fear God, and blame the devil for you sins,They promised you paradise, but hell if you disagree, They told you to seek without, and wait for eternal life,They told you a lie.There is no God to fear or a devil to blame,It is only you and yourself,Sometimes a god and sometimes Fear,They told you to seek without,They told you a lie
— Quetzal
I lie about lying, which means I can lie
— Alex
But the lies which Odette ordinarily told were less innocent, and served to prevent discoveries which might have involved her in the most terrible difficulties with one or another of her friends. And so, when she lied, smitten with fear, feeling herself to be but feebly armed for her defence, unconfident of success, she was inclined to weep from sheer exhaustion, as children weep sometimes when they have not slept. She knew, also, that her lie, as a rule, was doing a serious injury to the man to whom she was telling it, and that she might find herself at his mercy if she told it badly. Therefore she felt at once humble and culpable in his presence. And when she had to tell an insignificant, social lie its hazardous associations, and the memories which it recalled, would leave her weak with a sense of exhaustion and penitent with a consciousness of wrongdoing.
— Marcel Proust, Swann's Way
Tell the truth, but tell it slant.
— Emily Dickinson
In Swann's mind, however, these words, meeting no opposition, settled and hardened until they assumed the indestructibility of a truth so indubitable that, if some friend happened to tell him that he had come by the same train and had not seen Odette, Swann would have been convinced that it was his friend who had made a mistake as to the day or hour, since his version did not agree with the words uttered by Odette. These words had never appeared to him false except when, before hearing them, he had suspected that they were going to be. For him to believe that she was lying, and anticipatory suspicion was indispensable.
— Marcel Proust, Swann's Way
Swann could at once detect in this story one of those fragments of literal truth which liars, when taken by surprise, console themselves by introducing into the composition of the falsehood which they have to invent, thinking that it can be safely incorporated, and will lend the whole story an air of verisimilitude.
— Marcel Proust, Swann's Way
Though I have said that I envy the normal man to the last drop of my bile, yet I should not care to be in his place such as he is now (though I shall not cease envying him). No, no; anyway the underground life is more advantageous. There, at any rate, one can … Oh, but even now I am lying! I am lying because I know myself that it is not underground that is better, but something different, quite different, for which I am thirsting, but which I cannot find! Damn underground!
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead
It sounded so proper to lie for the sake of a beloved.
— Anuradha Bhattacharyya, The Road Taken
As falsehood peels like paint, eternal truth is uncovered.
— T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph Over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence"
Pious” is a sword that the clever always use it to eliminate the truth.
— Alireza Salehi Nejad, The Third World: Country or People
Do you know, I am putting off ending this letter as though the end would be the end of something I want to hold on to. That's not true of course - just a feeling like the quick one of hexing your trip so you couldn't go. The mind is capable of any selfishness and it thinks unworthy things whether you want it or not. Best to admit it is a bad child rather than to pretend it is always a good one. Because a bad child can improve but a good one is a liar and nothing can improve a liar.
— John Steinbeck
Truth with love is a lie
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Sometimes you have to lie. Sometimes it’s the only way to protect the ones you love.
— Emily Bleeker, Wreckage
All at once it seemed like too much of a betrayal to continue to pretend that his brother was delirious, hallucinating, not in his right mind. Lying when he was telling the truth. Maybe Kenzie was right-maybe secrets were more the problem than the solution. Maybe Kenzie was the only clearheaded person in that room.And yet-he couldn't supress a twinge of fear that if he told the truth, he'd never see Emma again. Never hear her music again. Their musical connection was the closest he'd ever come to slacking his thirst for a human touch.
— Cinda Williams Chima, The Sorcerer Heir
Can you see why I can't stand a lie? People have been lying to me all my life. Even the person I loved the most in the world."Sometimes people lie for good reasons," Jonah said. "To keep you safe, or to avoid breaking your heart, or to make it possible for you to go on living.
— Cinda Williams Chima
I am bound to accord you, in the name of free speech, the full right to shout, lie and write to your heart’s content. But you are bound to grant me, in the name of freedom of association, the right to enter into, or withdraw from, association with people advocating this or that view.
— Vladimir Lenin
When the lie and the truth are two trenchant weapons, they are at the risk of becoming downright uncertainties.
— Marieta Maglas
The waves lie on the beach
—  Your hair on your back of angel. (Les vagues s’allongent sur la plage
Worst persons of the world those easily take lie wear of their child,For a sec they don't feel hesitation to put child life on risk for self.So how you can call them Human if even they Don't love their own child
— Mohammed Zaki Ansari
Selling a new lie is easy, but not so with un-teaching an old truth.
— Geoffrey Wood
Everyone have two faces, but mine are twins.
— Felix Caussan
Romeo: I dreamt a dream tonight.Mercutio: And so did I.Romeo: Well, what was yours?Mercutio: That dreamers often lie.
— William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
And that’s the problem. When you’realive, people can hurt you. It’s easier to crawl into a bonecage or a snowdrift of confusion. It’s easier to lock everybodyout.But it’s a lie.
— Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls
We worked through the “alien abduction” memory and discovered that the “spaceship” was parked in the courtyard of the cult training centre. An insider had been instructed that if the survivor began to remember the ritual abuse, she was to make her remember the alien abduction, so that nobody would believe her account of the ritual abuse. This programme did not work in this case, but you can imagine the larger consequences of such a ruse.
— Alison Miller, Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse
There are many hidden truths behind a lie
— Arlin Sailesh Kapadia
The truth that we hide is naked, the one that we flaunt is so well dressed!
— Abhijit Kar Gupta
He piled fib on top of lie on top of exaggeration and cemented it all with hyperbole.
— Tom Angleberger, Horton Halfpott; or, The Fiendish Mystery of Smugwick Manor; or, The Loosening of M’Lady Luggertuck’s Corset
That she lived a lie. That she wasn't the good girl everyone believed her to be, wanted her to be.
— Lacey Alexander, Bad Girl by Night
Shout the truth, if you want to degoogle the google.” Says Bhutta
— M.K. Bhutta
Generally, the lie is a denatured truth. Drama occurs when this truth is still non- existent for the majority of human beings, and it is denatured before becoming existent as an important element of the evolution.
— Marieta Maglas
Generally, the lie is a denatured truth.Drama occurs when this truth is still nonexistent, and it must become existent for the human being.
— Marieta Maglas
Generally, the lie is a denatured truth.Drama occurs when this truth is still nonexistent, and it must become exitent for the human being.
— Marieta Maglas
Don’t worry about the haters… They are just angry because the truth you speak contradicts the lie they live.
— Steve Maraboli
Lice consume grass, rust consumes iron, and lying the soul!
— Anton Chekhov, My Life
lies can run but they can’t hide
— pavankumar nagaraj
I love you" he said. I did not say anything. What could I say? If i said i love you too, i had perpetual punishment for being a liar.
— Arzum Uzun, Nerdesin Aşkım?
Not just in America. When I left my primary school, my father said, 'Son, you are now a man,' then he gave me a scented candle and told me how babies are made." Vik fought to keep his lips from twitching.
— S.J. Kincaid
lie can run but they can’t hide
— pavankumar nagaraj
Don’t lie. Life is a puzzle and we are all unique pieces. When you lie, you make it impossible to find your true place in the grand design.
— Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
Live a life of lies
—  die a death of truths.
You can be with the 'truth' or you can cheat yourself by believing the big lie in front of you is the 'truth'. Those who are with the 'truth' are a minority, whom you may call Utopians.
— Kandathil Sebastian, Dolmens in the Blue Mountain
Okay, I've lied to him. But you saw how jealous he gets. It makes me feel like I have to. And I shouldn't defend my right to be friends with another guy.
— Stephanie Perkins, Lola and the Boy Next Door
My tongue ran over my lower lip and I could taste the sin. It was thick and heavy in the air, and it made my head swim as I gazed into Abel's ocean-colored eyes. I wondered whether he tasted it too, whether his heart was pounding in his chest. I wondered most of all if it was artificial - a haze of adoration brought on by the pills. It had been so long since I'd wanted that; I didn't trust my own thoughts, but if felt too good to care.
— Teresa Mummert, Perfect Lie
It was a lie and I detected it at once. As an accomplished fibber myself, I spotted the telltale signs of an untruth before they were halfway out of his mouth: the excessive detail, the offhand delivery, and the wrapping-up of it all in casual chitchat.
— Alan Bradley, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
the war taught me that nothing counts as much as loyalty" "Bullshit. you still haven't learned that when humans are under pressure, we're all willing to lie" "even to the people we care?" "we lie more to our loved ones, because we care about them so damn much. why do you think we tell the truth to priests and shrinks and total strangers we meet on trains? it's because we don't love them, so we don't care what they think.
— Ken Follett, Code to Zero
Gomst's mouth framed a 'no', but every other muscle in him said 'yes'. You'd think priests would be better liars, what with their jobs and all.
— Mark  Lawrence, Prince of Thorns
Some promises are lies we never meant to tell.
— Robin Maxwell, The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn
The longer the explanation, the bigger the lie.... Always remember that.
— Ziad K. Abdelnour, Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics
Senses will lie as dreams wake. You are not on solid ground. Don't look down.
— Brian McGreevy, Hemlock Grove
Stay in your room
—  write your own books
They do everything to make you fail
—  but when you win they all start kissing your shoes to be part of the game.
I had fallen in love with a perfect lie.
— R.K. Lilley, In Flight
Fill your mind before you empty your mouth.
— Habeeb Akande
The fact that he does not tell me the truth all the time makes me not sure of his truth at certain times, and then I work to figure out for myself if what he is telling me is the truth or not, and sometimes I can figure out that it's not the truth and sometimes I don't know and never know, and sometimes just because he says it to me over and over again I am convinced it is the truth because I don't believe he would repeat a lie so often. Maybe the truth does not matter, but I want to know it if only so that I can come to some conclusions about such questions as: whether he is angry at me or not; if he is, then how angry; whether he still loves her or not; if he does, then how much; whether he loves me or not; how much; how capable he is of deceiving me in the act and after the act in the telling.
— Lydia Davis, Break It Down
The funny thing about a lie is that once it has been said and believed, it lives and becomes. It can't be taken back. It sucks all the air from you until you give up and it takes over and you forget how to breathe on your own. It is like those parasitic relationships, but not like the shark and the little remora that politely cleans the shark's skin and sometimes attaches itself to its underbelly. No, it is more like a tapeworm eating someone from the inside out.
— Carrie Arcos, Out of Reach
Nothing good will come out with lying.
— Son Jae Ho, Noblesse Season1. 2: the human world
It is better to tell the truth and face the punishment, than to lie and face the consequences.
— Anthony Liccione
Rumours are like sexually transmitted diseases, both are spread by whores.
— Habeeb Akande
I cried for a while, taking solace in the comforting lie of his embrace. The illusion, the fantasy, it helped. I never wanted to leave. I wanted to stay here forever, held tight to his chest, his fingers stroking my hair, his heart beating against my ear: you’re-safe, trust-me, love-you. Love. Did I want him to love me? Yes. I wanted someone to love me. And what was love if not someone risking their lives to save you? Caleb had saved me. Did it mean he loved me? A part of me wanted to think so. To believe in a romantic ideal that didn’t exist. I wanted to believe the lie. But more than that – I wanted it not to be a lie
— C.J. Roberts
They told us love was a disease. They told us it would kill us in the end.For the very first time I realize, that this, too, might also be a lie.
— Lauren Oliver, Delirium
Talking is not easy. Talking intends to convey what you mean. Lying is easy, not talking. When one lies, one doesnot care, and that’s the easy part.
— Ravindra Shukla, A Maverick Heart: Between Love and Life
I'm far from perfect- maybe beautifully flawed- but I don't lie
— Jayde Scott, A Job From Hell
the difference between secret andlie is similar to the difference of iceand water.when you heat ice it becomes water.and when you force anyone toreveal there secrets it comes in aform of lie.
— Munendra Dwivedi
[the only acting advice he would give] What is acting but lying and what is good lying but convincing lying?
— Laurence Olivier
The truth hurts when you live a life of lies.
— Habeeb Akande
The walls were coming down around me, but still, I couldn't imagine telling the truth. Not now. It was too late. How can I tell Mom and Dad what we'd done? It would ruin everything. It would ruin their image of me; it would ruin every thought they'd ever had about who I was. It would be another death.Another loss. Another miscarriage.
— Dana Reinhardt, Harmless
Sometimes people don’t want the truth. Sometimes the truth is worse than a lie.
— Chelsea M. Cameron
There is no effort in time wasted by remembering the truth. A lie requires an effort of life and wasted time to remember because one lie tends to become a lifestyle that destroys.
— Richard Diaz
The mirror will only lie, when you look at it through a mask.
— Anthony Liccione
It is always better to live the truth than to live a lie.
— Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Prince
You lie like butter wouldn't melt in your mouth, Edward."He smiled. "I don't lie to you.""Really," I said.The smile became a grin. "Okay, not most of the time, anymore." His face sobered. "I'm not lying now.
— Laurell K. Hamilton, Skin Trade
they may all be drunk at my place, but they're all honest, and though we do lie-because I lie, too-in the end we'll lie our way to the truth
— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment
If I told you, you might be forced to lie about it. Not that you aren't really good at it, but why put an old man in that position?
— Susan Elizabeth Phillips, The Great Escape
We both knew that what I said was the truth, as well as being a lie. The pure and honest answer was pinging between us, hovering above the weeds.
— Sonya Hartnett, Surrender
So now they're shaking in their boots and looking for someone to give them the answer they want to hear. Not the truth, but some lie that will protect them from the truth
— Ralph Ellison
Both the two of us knew it. We watched the lie go up big and slow between us, then it burst like a spit bubble. They always burst before too long.
— Stephen Kelman, Pigeon English
The noir hero is a knight in blood caked armor. He's dirty and he does his best to deny the fact that he's a hero the whole time.
— Frank Miller
A hero can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as he has the nerve.
— Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson & the Olympians:  The Ultimate Guide
The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred.
— Dalai Lama XIV
Maybe I’m not the hero to her I've always tried so hard to be, because right now, I feel as if she doesn't even need a hero. Why would she? She has someone so much stronger than I’ll ever be for her. She has herself.
— Colleen Hoover, Maybe Someday
Find out what your hero or heroine wants, and when he or she wakes up in the morning, just follow him or her all day..
— Ray Bradbury
I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference.
— Ellen Goodman
Adam has always had . . . heroic tendencies.”I touched Adam’s arm. “He’s my hero.”There was another pause. . .“That is the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard you say,” Bran said. “Be careful, Adam, or you’ll turn her into a real girl.”Adam looked at me. “I like her just the way she is, Bran.” And he meant it, greasy overalls, broken fingernails, and all.
— Patricia Briggs, Silver Borne
Once in a while, life gives you a chance to measure your worth. Sometimes you're called upon to make a split-second decision to do the right thing, defining which way your life will go. These are the decisions that make you who you are.
— Perry Moore
Heroes are important. Heroes tell us who we want to be but when they made this particular hero they didn’t give him a gun, they gave him a screwdriver to fix things. They didn’t give him a tank or a warship or an X-Wing, they gave him a call box from which you can call for help and they didn’t give him a superpower or a heat-ray, they gave him an extra heart. And that’s extraordinary. There will never come a time when we don’t need a hero like the doctor.
— Steven Moffat
--Hero!? Forget it! We're Pirates! I love heroes but I don't wanna become one! Do you even know what it takes to be a Hero!?Lets say you have some meat okay? Now a Pirate would chomp down on that bad boy, but a hero would share it with everyone!! I want to eat meat!""--Hero!? Forget it! We're Pirates! I love heroes but I don't wanna become one! Do you even know what it takes to be a Hero!?Lets say you have some meat okay? Now a Pirate would chomp down on that bad boy, but a hero would share it with everyone!! I want to eat meat!" - Monkey D. Luffy
— Eiichirō Oda
Speaking of luck, Isabelle Lightwood is a total babe. Actually, she's better than a babe: She's a hero. She came all the way here to tell the world you were hers. You're telling me she doesn't know another hero when she sees one? You're going to figure out what you're doing here. Isabelle Lightwood believes in you, and for what it's worth, I do too.
— Cassandra Clare, Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy
A real hero doesn't expect to be thanked or even recognized.
— Tom  Collins, When Irish Eyes Are Sparkling
Every society needs heroes. And every society has them. The reason we don't often see them is because we don't bother to look.There are two kinds of heroes. Heroes who shine in the face of great adversity, who perform an amazing feat in a difficult situation. And heroes who live among us, who do their work unceremoniously, unnoticed by many of us, but who make a difference in the lives of others.Heroes are selfless people who perform extraordinary acts. The mark of heroes is not necessarily the result of their action, but what they are willing to do for others and for their chosen cause. Even if they fail, their determination lives on for others to follow. The glory lies not in the achievement, but in the sacrifice.
— Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
People who go to work every day, make sacrifices to raise families, and get through life without hurting other people if they can help it-those are the real heros.
— Dean Koontz, Winter Moon
I just want one person I can rescue and I want one person who needs me. Who can't live without me. I want to be a hero, but not just one time.
— Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
He thinks he’ll be remembered as the villain in the story”She snorted.“But I forgot to tell him,” I said too quietly, opening the door, “that the villain is usually the person who locks up the maiden and throws away the key.”“Oh?”I shrugged, “He was the one who let me out.
— Sarah J. Maas
In my opinion, actual heroism, like actual love, is a messy, painful, vulnerable business—and I wanted to try to reflect that.
— John Green
Drizzt Do'Urden had followed a line of precepts based upon discipline and ultimate optimism. He fought for a better world because he believed that a better world could and would be made. He had never held any illusions that he would change the world, of course, or even a substantial portion of it, but he always held strongly that fighting to better just his own little pocket of the world was a worthwhile cause.
— R.A. Salvatore, The Thousand Orcs
Leo grabbed the neasrest thing he could find- a Porta-Potty seat- and threw it at the face. Leve me alone!
— Rick Riordan
Heroes are more than just stories, they’re people. And people are complicated; people are strange. Nobody is a hero through and through, there’s always something in them that’ll turn sour... you’ll learn it one day. There are no heroes, only villains who win.
— Joel Cornah, The Sea-Stone Sword
But everything had changed, and I was becoming more and more of who I really was, and less of this person I had thought I wanted to be.
— Perry Moore
That’s what it takes to be a hero, a little gem of innocence inside you that makes you want to believe that there still exists a right and wrong, that decency will somehow triumph in the end.
— Lise Hand
Griffin, please,” she whispered.“Do you want me?” he asked.“Yes!” She tossed her head restlessly. She’d explode if he didn’t give her release soon.“Do you need me?” He kissed her nipple too gently.“Please, please, please.”“Do you love me?”And somehow, despite her extremis, she saw the gaping hole of the trap. She peered up at him blindly in the dark. She couldn’t see his face, his expression.“Griffin,” she sighed hopelessly.“You can’t say it, can you?” he whispered. “Can’t admit it either.
— Elizabeth Hoyt, Notorious Pleasures
I used to be embarrassed by my mom, but now I know what she is—she’s a hero.
— Carrie Jones, After Obsession
Love is willing to become to villain so that the one who you love can stay a hero.
— Josephine Angelini, Firewalker
While one may lose much because of avarice, nothing was ever accomplished by abstinence.
— Isuna Hasekura, Spice & Wolf, Vol. 01
There are only three types of citizenship: hero, villain, nobody.
— Toba Beta, Master of Stupidity
The public loves to create a hero....Sometimes I think they do it for the sheer joy of knocking him down from the highest peak. Like a child who builds a house of blocks and then destroys it with one vicious kick.
— Grace Metalious, Peyton Place
The whole earth is the tomb of heroic men and their story is not given only on stone over their clay but abides everywhere without visible symbol woven into the stuff of other mens lives.
— Pericles
The people need a hero. But all they've got is . . . me.
— Christopher Healy, The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle
Where once we aspired to be more like our heroes, today we try to make our heroes more like us.
— James Rozoff
I don't think there's too much normal out there anymore. Though there's still plenty of average to go around.
— John David  Anderson, Standard Hero Behavior
A hero cannot be a hero unless in a heroic world.
— Nathaniel Hawthorne
He wasn’t a hero. He wasn’t the man who stepped forward and saved the innocent. He was lost himself. Shadows had invaded a long time ago and stolen his life. But he would give anything he had left to be the man who found a way to save Judith
— Christine Feehan, Spirit Bound
Those novels with old-fashioned heroes and heroines in them -- are ruinous!
— William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham
By living a life “against nature,” the deviant or pervert becomes a hero or heroine in decadent fiction.
— Asti Hustvedt, The Decadent Reader: Fiction, Fantasy, and Perversion from Fin-de-Siècle France
No," he said hoarsely, "the chair will do just fine, thank you.""If I know you are uncomfortable, I shan't be able to sleep." She sounded remarkably like a damsel in distress.Dunford shuddered. He had never been able to resist playing hero. Slowly he got to his feet and walked to the empty side of the bed.How bad could it be?
— Julia Quinn, Minx
No hero is a hero if he ever killed someone! Only the man who has not any blood in his hand can be a real hero! The honour of being a hero belongs exclusively to the peaceful people!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
After all, you are a hero and everything.
— V.S. Carnes
If, as has been postulated before, heroism happens when courage meets circumstance, what if the circumstances are mundane?
— Brad Herzog, Turn Left At The Trojan Horse: A Would-Be Hero's American Odyssey
Perhaps elements like tenacity and humility combine to form a heroic compound.
— Brad Herzog, Turn Left At The Trojan Horse: A Would-Be Hero's American Odyssey
Fighting does not make you a hero. Love does.
— Sameh Elsayed
I asked my Greek chorus about this sort of hero: the Underappreciated Personification of Resolve.
— Brad Herzog, Turn Left At The Trojan Horse: A Would-Be Hero's American Odyssey
The wind picks up, but instead of putting his sweatshirt back on, he just fits the hood over his head. As he walks forward, it billows behind him like a cape.
— Robin Roe, A List of Cages
I go where I'm needed.
— Sofi Benitez, Dog Daze
There was no sign he’d even been in a fight –Fucking Golden Boy.
— Liz Thebart, Walk Away
You wake up one day and realise that your struggles and battles are your own and no one else ́s. And there is no one more capable to fight all the odds and enemies except you and you alone!
— Tina Sequeira, SOUL SOJOURN
The Holy Fool is always considered a dummy by the smart, hip people who really know the score. There’s a mysterious blight on the land, nothing will grow and no one knows how to break the spell. The Holy Fool sets out to find the cause, right the wrong, save the people. He’s told he can’t do it, that he’s too dumb, too weak, too something, hearing from all quarters, “That’s not how we do things here," and “You just don’t understand." But he goes ahead anyway.
— Ann Medlock
The devotion of one man had given strength and courage to all.
— Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
My mother describes me as 'a real hero . . . just like your grandfather'. But I do not know what to do with this accolade for her son, other than let her have moment, or it helps her back here.
— Jake Wood, Among You: The Extraordinary True Story of a Soldier Broken By War
From there, a more difficult period began. Even the villains, the world's worst people, the one percent, what have you, imagine themselves to be the heroes of their own stories, and I saw myself this way. I, too, could be a hero or protagonist, and not some mere bystander in the greater drama of someone else's life. It was awkward to see a murderer as a hero, so I had to constantly remind myself of how Auggie's stepfather had been selfish and evil.
— Alex Kudera, Auggie's Revenge
I didn’t yet know that romantic heroes—famous and not—are usually aimless nomads in disguise.
— Sherman Alexie, You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
And the best sort of villain is smart and subtle and so very tricky that you don't even know he's the villain, because he thinks himself the hero in his own story.
— Roseanna M. White, A Name Unknown
It’s easy to be a hero when your own survival is aligned with someone else’s, when your victory is a victory for your entire clan.
— Delilah S. Dawson, Phasma
A hero is one who can never stop fighting for truth no matter the oppression
— Topsy Gift
To be a hero holds honor but to be a legend is to live forever.
— Julian Quintero
The world is not fair. That's why it needs heroes. Play fair. Be a hero.
— Mark Andrew Poe
We can't let the next generation grow up without heroes. Some of us have to fight on!
— Avijeet Das
When we read tales of atrocity, we all want to be the one who stood firm, who would not bend, who shouted the truth in the face of the dictator.Vsevolod Meyerhold came as close as anyone to achieving this. It is important to know of the full horror of his sacrifice. It is easy for all to imagine we are heroes when we are sitting in our kitchens, dreaming of distant suffering.- Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad
— M.T. Anderson
The problem of the hero is to pierce himself (and therewith his world) precisely through that point
—  to shatter and annihilate that key knot of his limited existence.
The life of hero is the tale of a person overcoming personal hardship and obstacles while striving to achieve an exultant victory that voices repressed citizens’ ecstatic thoughts and dreams.
— Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls
Our mother used to say that a hero doesn't always have to slay a dragon to save the day." She swept a lock of hair behind her ear in an honest gesture, then pursed her lips and looked back at him, her gaze endearing. "Sometimes he just walks through the fire alongside you, and that's enough.
— Kristy Cambron, The Illusionist's Apprentice
Edilio is in hiding,” Astrid snapped. “Edilio has to worry about being kicked out of the country. Our Edilio.”“He’s got a volunteer lawyer—”But Astrid wasn’t done. “They should be putting up statues to Edilio. They should be naming schools after that boy—no, no, I’m not going to call him a boy. If he’s not a man, then I’ll never meet one.”Lana nodded approvingly, obviously enjoying and sharing in Astrid’s outrage.
— Michael  Grant, Light
Keahi: I didn’t save you, Odette. I won’t take credit for it. You saved yourself, and you saved me.Odete: So am I the princess or the hero?Keahi: I don’t see why the princess can’t be the hero. Princesses are pretty heroic, after all.
— Tovaley B. Kysel, The Scion Princess
You will never become a hero if you keep waiting for someone else to bring a cape for you.
— Akshay Vasu
There is no greater will on earth than the will to survive. These fine people, answering my father's call to arms, had the will in spades and droves. - Lord Tristan Dracanburh, Ethandun
— Alexandra May, Ethandun
The woman with hair of flames knelt over me. She might have been pretty if not for the anger in every corner of her face. Emerald eyes glowed with almost seeping venom as her nostrils flared. - Lord Tristan Dracanburh, Ethandun
— Alexandra May, Ethandun
Are you the stuff that hero's are made of? Or are you a jellyfish in a skirt?
— Cressida Cowell, How to Steal a Dragon's Sword
It was easier to tell a hero from villain when the stakes were only life or death. Everything in between gets harder.
— Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King
They [442nd Regimental Combat Team] did more than defend America. They helped define America at its best...Rarely has a nation been so well served by a people it has so ill-treated.
— --President Bill Clinton, quoted in Honor Before Glory
Kill the heroes and you kill the soul of a nation.
— Robert Ferrigno, Heart of the Assassin
Don't be a bully, don't be meanBe a hero, don't be afraid to be seen.
— Christina Engela, Other Kids Are Kids Almost Just Like You
Sam?”“Yeah.”“I was on the school bus that day. Remember?”“Vaguely,” he said, and laughed. “My fifteen minutes of fame.”“You were the bravest, coolest person I’d ever known. Everyone thought so. You were the hero of the whole school. And then, I don’t know. It was like you kind of just…faded.”He resented that a little. He hadn’t faded. Had he? “Well, most days the bus driver doesn’t have a heart attack,” Sam said.Astrid laughed. “You’re one of those people, I think. You go along in your life just sort of living. And then something goes wrong and there you are. You step up and do what you have to do. Like today, the fire.”“Yeah, well, to tell you the truth, I kind of prefer the other part. The part where I just live my life.”Astrid nodded like she understood, but then she said, “That’s not going to happen this time.
— Michael Grant, Gone
He was a man. Just a man. Yet, you always knew he'd succeed. He made you be what he wanted you to be.
— Brandon Sanderson, The Hero of Ages
Sometimes your hero is you.
— Lindsay Chamberlin
You are better than any hollywood star. Just love yourself...!!!
— M.Rehan Behleem
I was just cleaning up my own mess, Baz. Like, no one would call you a hero for cleaning up your own vomit.
— Rainbow Rowell, Carry On
The ability to heal does not make one good any more than the ability to kill makes one evil. Kill the right people, and you become a hero. Heal the wrongs ones, and you become a villain. It is our choices that define us, not our abilities
— Michelle Hodkin, The Retribution of Mara Dyer
Be a hero, if not for others, then for yourself.
— Muktinath Vishwakarma
In wartime, everyone loves a soldier, and a wounded hero even more so.
— Jack Higgins, The Eagle Has Landed
I'm not a hero for living autistic. I'm a person just like you. Just living my life.
— Tina J. Richardson, I didnt mean it that way
Subtle difference between a hero and an opportunist is not where you stand, but its timing. Standing up against injustice when it suits is convenience, not heroism
— Faisal Khosa
Being a hero is the easiest way to meet a bullet with your name on it.
— David Kendall, The Mammoth Book of Best War Comics
The symbol of peace cannot be daunted by evil. I smile to show the pressure of heroes and to trick the fear inside of me.
— Kouhei Horikoshi
For a hero is someone who is selfless. Think about it, friends. Superman, Luke Skywalker, and Captain America. They are helping others. They aren’t only thinking for themselves. They are reaching out beyond themselves.
— Mark Andrew Poe
I’ll tell you what time it is. It is time to be a hero.
— Mark Andrew Poe
Heroes don't always have capes, badges or uniforms. Sometimes, they support those who do.
— Andrea Randall
I was the hero, Roberto De Niro, William Shakespearo! Walking on the beaches, looking at the peaches.
— Charlie Higson, The End
Don’t wait for anyone to push you up, push yourself up; don’t wait for anyone to pull you up, pull yourself up! Your best hero, your greatest savior is yourself! The candle of your darkness is hidden within you!
— Mehmet Murat ildan
Don't you love those crazy Brits?Jumpers for sweaters and spots for zits.And when they want to change their suits,It's in a box, not a booth.Be a hero, make a call.Steepest streets might make you fall.
— Megan Frazer Blakemore, The Friendship Riddle
A block from his hotel, Gary cleared his throat. “I thought you said going back to my room might be dangerou
— Christine Feehan, Dark Magic
Is it like this everywhere you go?” Gary asked. “Pretty much.” Savannah shrugged calmly. “I don’t really mind. Peter always—” She broke off abruptly and brought the steaming cup to her mouth. Gregori could feel sorrow beating at her, a crushing stone weighing down her heart. His hand slipped down her arm to lace his fingers through hers. At once he poured warmth and comfort into her mind, the sensation of his arms around her body, holding her close. “Peter Sanders always took care of the details surrounding Savannah’s shows. He was very good at shielding her. He was murdered after her last show out in San Francisco.” He provided the information quietly to Gary. “I’m sorry,” Gary said instantly, meaning it. Her distress was evident in her large blue eyes. They shimmered with so
— Christine Feehan, Dark Magic
Every man alive is half idiot & half hero. Only heroes could survive in this maelstrom & only idiots would want to.
— Rex Stout
You might be a hero. I say might because the choice is ultimately yours
— Lisa Bevere, Girls with Swords: Why Women Need to Fight Spiritual Battles
Ruexner will pay dearly for this," Valten promised, speaking to no one in particular, but imagining he had the fiend's neck between his hands. If he dared hurt Gisela...
— Melanie Dickerson, The Captive Maiden
A hero must hero.
— Robert A. Heinlein
I just feel like we’re starting to interfere on a level that’s sort of . . . extreme.” “But that’s what heroes do.
— Seanan McGuire, A Red-Rose Chain
Who brings out the champion in you?Those that help you be the hero of your story, keep them close.
— Tony Curl
Three months before I met you, I was looking for the next thrill, the next party, the next girl. And then I walked in and found you perched in my kitchen like the most beautifully confident creature I'd ever seen, and I knew you'd be a wildfire.
— R.S Grey
You challenged me from the very beginning and I tried to resist you, but I knew even then that I wasn't going to walk away without you by my side.
— R.S Grey
So are you saying I’m your Superman?”--- Josh Copeland
— Dawn Chartier, His Wicked Desire
An active civil position will make you become the hero of your time.
— Sunday Adelaja
I just wasn’t sure it was a good idea to approach heroing the way I’d always approached detecting. Can you really shake the world until justice falls out?
— Seanan McGuire, A Red-Rose Chain
The medals of the dead heroes are the coins for the future. (Les médailles des héros morts - Sont les pièces pour l'avenir.)
— Charles de Leusse
I know of an ‘older boy’ who stuck to his own path without rotting despite being a Level 0. On that day back then when he spoke with his back turned and protecting me, he clearly surpassed me and my all-too-pathetic Level 5 ability. Your actual skill doesn’t matter. Coolly calculating out all the numbers is pointless. No matter how many arguments you prepare, you have no choice but to accept defeat once he walks in from beyond the horizon. I am very familiar with a Level 0 like that☆
— Kazuma Kamachi
Seattle? With Caine? In a hotel?I’d either kill him or screw him again.“Fuck.”“Alexa, the speakerphone is on,” Caine’s amused voice sounded from my desk.Oh, balls.
— Samantha Young, Hero
Ungentlemanliness?” he teased. “I dare you to say that five times fast.
— Samantha Young, Hero
He had to escape. He had to go and become a hero, the way he had been once.
— Cassandra Clare, Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy
when you asked me to stay away from you in your note, it finally hit me. You meant it. You weren’t going to try anymore. I’d run out of chances, and I realized that the night before would be the last time I ever saw you. And I couldn’t … The whole time on that plane I … I kept thinking to myself if I could just get to you I would tell you I loved you and I’d get to keep you. I’m that selfish.
— Samantha Young, Hero
Tomorrow you'll receive your employment contracts. Once you sign those I'm your boss." When I didn't answer he said, "That means you act the way I want you to act. That means you shelve your attitude and the twenty questions.""Should I shelve those next to 'personality'?
— Samantha Young, Hero
Without a word he started stalking down the street in the opposite direction my grandparents had taken. I started after him, my steps slower.And then quite abruptly Caine whipped around and marched back toward me. Features etched with determination, he yanked me roughly to him and crushed his mouth down over mine. I made a noise of surprise in the back of my throat before my instincts took over. I couldn’t help sinking into his kiss.When he finally let me go we were both breathing hard. Caine smoothed his thumb over my cheek, his eyes still dark with passion and anger. “I could give a fuck who saw that.
— Samantha Young, Hero
You’re lying to yourself. You’re holding this up as a way to keep me locked out. But it’s too late. I’m in. You love me.” I smiled softly as he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth against my words. “You love me,” I repeated, “and you’ll never hurt me. And I will never hurt you. I will never use you like they did, like they all did. Because I want you. Just you.
— Samantha Young, Hero
I won’t stay,” I warned him. “I won’t try to fight for you anymore. This is it. If you walk away it’s not for me. I won’t ever think that. I will always, always blame you for this. For ruining us.
— Samantha Young, Hero
Lexie, I practically sold my soul to get where I am today. I’m a selfish bastard … and you …” His eyes washed over my face. “You’ve already lost everything to keep your soul intact.
— Samantha Young, Hero
Lexie,” he said, his voice guttural, “I told you this to wake you up. A man like me isn’t capable of being your fucking white knight.” His fingers peeled my hand from his neck and he gently pressed me away.I felt the anger boil up inside me. “I’m not looking for a hero!”He flinched at the emotion cracking my words.“I never asked for that.” I shook, my hands curling into fists at my side. “I just wanted you, because despite what you might think, I see you. And no, you’re no fucking white knight, but you’re what I want.
— Samantha Young, Hero
For the longest time my company is what got me up in the morning. It was what motivated me every second of every day. Since the moment you started working for me, you are what has gotten me up in the morning. You are what motivates me every second of every day. And still I want more from you. Tomorrow the day is all ours, because I want to talk to you about something.
— Samantha Young, Hero
As I said, it comes with a price.” His grin was wicked and I suddenly felt a little breathless. “I’m a hard man to please. And I’m also a very busy man. You’ll do what I want when I want and I won’t always be nice about it. In fact, considering what your surname is, you can pretty much guarantee I won’t be nice about it.
— Samantha Young, Hero
Every search for a hero must begin with something which every hero requires - a villain.
— Robert Towne, Mission: Impossible
No one will ever understand like I do. You’re so different with me, baby. You take care of me. You make me feel safe. You’re not who you think you are. Didn’t you once tell me that people aren’t just one thing? You’re so much more to me than anything you might have done in the past.
— Samantha Young, Hero
I want your tongue back.”“And you’ll get it.” He pulled away only to tug his shirt off impatiently.
— Samantha Young
I die without seeing the dawn brighten over my native land. You who have it to see, welcome it ... and forget not those who have fallen during the night!
— José Rizal
Around the hero, everything becomes a tragedy.Around God, everything becomes what? a world?
— Friedrich Nietzsche
I’ve never been this happy,” I whispered, a little scared by it.Caine must have heard the fear, because he kissed my neck, tightened his hold on me, and said, “Me neither. But we’ll get used to it.”“Promise?”He lifted his head to meet my gaze. “No, because on second thought I don’t want to get used to it. If you get used to it—”“You forget to be thankful for it,” I finished.He nodded slowly. “Yeah.
— Samantha Young
Amantium irae amoris integratio estA Latin saying that means Lovers’ quarrels are the renewal of love
— Janet Aylmer, Sophie's Salvation
That’s what I said the first time I was called a hero. But you’re going to find that hero is a title other people give you; you don’t really get a say in the matter. Now me, I’m the kind of hero that slays the dragon. I overthrew the ArchTyrant and ended the age of Ragnarok...” he trailed off, his eyes distant. “...of course, ever since then I have been unable to reform the beauracrats and the nobles. Despite my best efforts, they beat me in the end.” He cleared his throat and looked up. “Now you, on the other hand, you are a different kind of hero. You take the dragon home with you. You feed it, teach it, tame it, befriend it. You remove the threat by changing its heart, rather than actually slaying the beast
— Aaron Lee Yeager, Kharmic Rebound
That’s no little kid. That’s Jason Steed, the biggest damn hero you will ever see!
— Mark A. Cooper, Fledgling
Every man is a hero if he strives more for others than for himself alone.
— Lloyd Alexander, The High King
Gray rested his hand on Aric’s knee. “Sacrificed yourself, j-just like the giants.”“But I didn’t mean to! It’s only… the prince fell over the cliff, and I didn’t think at all, I just moved. I was the tallest and the strongest. I don’t think anyone else could have reached him in time. He was injured pretty badly. But I wasn’t a hero. I saw something that needed to be done, and I did it.”With a low chuckle, Gray squeezed his knee. “Th-that’s what heroes do, Aric.”“But I’m not
— Kim Fielding, Brute
To survive in this world, you got to be many times a coward but at least once a hero
— Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master's Son
You're my hero, Rhage."Ears pricked up, Rhage watched her closely. Anything she said was important to him, and how lovely was that?"I always thought I'd grow up and find my own hero." Rainie grimaced at herself in the mirror. Obviously she shouldn't have wasted her youth on reading and daydreaming. "But I gave up; I'm not holding out for a hero anymore.
— Cherise Sinclair, Show Me, Baby
Wars are won from a wink, a gesture, an event that transpired a millennium before the battle. Humanity has always been saved by small acts; the ones where someone gained a piece of their own puzzle, not the ones where a hero stood prodigious on a battlefield.
— Sarah Noffke, Awoken
He thought of that heroic Colonel Pontmercy . . . who had left upon every field of victory in Europe drops of that same blood which he, Marius, had in his veins, who had grown grey before his time in discipline and in command, who had lived with his sword-belt buckled, his epaulets falling on his breast, his cockade blackened by powder, his forehead wrinkled by the cap, in the barracks, in the camp, in the bivouac, in the ambulance, and who after twenty years had returned from the great wars with his cheek scarred, his face smiling, simple, tranquil, admirable, pure as a child, having done everything for France and nothing against her.
— Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
Sometimes, you have to be your own hero.
— Mirage
Acts of heroism are easy—becoming a hero is a bitch.
— Adam Johnson, The Orphan Master's Son
Rarely has a new player on the game captured so much attention so fast.
— Auliq Ice
Worthiness should not be defined by the whims of magic weapons. Rise, my son, and let the hammer be damned. Rise and remember the hero that you are.
— Jason Aaron
Madonna's- Justify My Love, follows us into the lounge, where several men, seated at the tables, eye us like hungry lions as we walk through. Tiger asked, "So, this is a WHOREhouse?""Actually, a gay BATHhouse. I hope you don't mind that I'm a little bit of a SLUT-puppy.""MIND? NO. You're MY HERO.
— Giorge Leedy, Uninhibited From Lust To Love
I am the Hero of Time. No matter where or when I am, I will fight for Hyrule... and for Princess Zelda.
— Akira Himekawa, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Part 2
Bruce Wayne/Batman: A hero can be anyone, even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat on a young boy's shoulders to let him know that the world hadn't ended.
— Christopher Nolan
Ha! Good luck, lady!" Gustav laughed and tapped his thick index finger against his temple. "No one knows what goes on inside this head. Not even me.
— Christopher Healy, The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw
Accidents happen. I will, um . . . I will pay to have your house rebuilt." "And my barn?" a woman called out. Liam sighed. "Yes, and your barn, too." "And my golden carousel?" shouted another man. "Will you pay for that?" Liam raised an eyebrow. "The giant smashed your golden carousel?" "No," said the man. "I'd just like to have a golden carousel.
— Christopher Healy, The Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw