c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Even in the act of fleeing modern ideologies, however, literary theory reveals its often unconscious complicity with them, betraying its elitism, sexism or individualism in the very ‘aesthetic’ or ‘unpolitical’ language it finds natural to use of the literary text. It assumes, in the main, that at the centre of the world is the contemplative individual self, bowed over its book, striving to gain touch with experience, truth, reality, history or tradition. Other things matter too, of course — this individual is in personal relationship with others, and we are always much more than readers — but it is notable how often such individual consciousness, set in its small circle of relationships, ends up as the touchstone of all else. The further we move from the rich inwardness of the personal life, of which literature is the supreme exemplar, the more drab, mechanical and impersonal existence becomes. It is a view equivalent in the literary sphere to what has been called possessive individualism in the social realm, much as the former attitude may shudder at the latter: it reflects the values of a political system which subordinates the sociality of human life to solitary individual enterprise.
— Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction
When the author admits to Christians that he was not a Christian himself, he says their dialogue became "distant and rehearsed, like a pitch for Ginsu knives.
— Kevin Roose, The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University
If I seem to you to change my state and alter my condition, I do not change my mind. I try always to be Hutten, never to desert myself, but to walk with equanimity through the unequal scenes of life.
— Ulrich von Hutten, Ulrich von Hutten and the German Reformation
Pretentiousness repels but authenticity attracts, and vulnerability is the pathway to intimacy.
— Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?
Our works in stone, in paint, in print, are spared, some of them, for a few decades or a millennium or two, but everything must finally fall in war, or wear away into the ultimate and universal ash - the triumphs, the frauds, the treasures and the fakes. A fact of life: we're going to die. "Be of good heart," cry the dead artists out of the living past. "Our songs will all be silenced, but what of it? Go on singing." Maybe a man's name doesn't matter all that much.
— Orson Welles
I also came to understand that our authenticity (or lack thereof) is made evident by the fruit that our life is bearing.
— Christine Caine, Stop Acting Like a Christian, Just Be One
Don't be afraid to be authentic, show up in the world as you truly are.Be as you mean to be, but be light with it. Love it, give it, share it, laugh at it, walk everywhere with it.Be in the world but not OF it.
— Jay Woodman
The first and most important step in the process of becoming genuinely is to be once again authenticated by the original designer.
— Erwin Raphael McManus, Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul
It’s the great temptation for small groups of people to slide into a state where they’re not quite telling each other the truth and they’re not quite celebrating each other. Instead, they tolerate each other, they accommodate each other, and they settle for sitting on the unspoken matters that separate them.
— Bill Hybels, Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs
When calling for authenticity, we need to take seriously the brokenness and sinfulness of the human heart. If to be authentic means to be who we really are or to express what we really feel, then in most cases I’m going to vote for hypocrisy. Our prisons are filled with men and women who acted on their feelings and impulses. If authenticity is about being true to yourself, these individuals should be our models of inspiration.
— Erwin Raphael McManus, Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul
Too often we think sharing our weaknesses will cause us to lose respect. We think making our weaknesses know will cause us to lose the honour to be able to proclaim the Word of God in our congregations or our businesses. I know longer believe that is true. Not today, in our post modern culture. What I do believe is the more you tell the truth about yourself – appropriately, winsomely, age-appropriately, within a context – the more effective your leadership will become, the more you will develop a true leading character. The more you tell of your own failure of character, the more God will use that for His purposes.
— Dan B. Allender, Leading Character
The fact is, many people do not know how treat themselves and are experts at putting themselves down. In fact, if most of us were in a relationship with ourselves, we would break up with us, given how badly we treat ourselves.
— Ramani Durvasula, You Are WHY You Eat: Change Your Food Attitude, Change Your Life
Authenticity empowers communication.
— James L. Nicodem, Prayer Coach: For All Who Want to Get Off the Bench and Onto the Praying Field
Breaking childhood teachings is never easy, and in essence, they are like white noise that can sometimes stop us from listening to ourselves, or having to listen to ourselves.
— Ramani Durvasula
True creation requires authority and authenticity.
— Bryant McGill, Voice of Reason
The sightseers would have been disappointed, as the real thing always makes a poorer show than the fake. ("I'm Dangerous Tonight")
— Cornell Woolrich, The Fantastic Stories of Cornell Woolrich
The final option to have your book completed is to hire a ghost writer. The challenge with this option is that it is important to note that your voice IS an integral part of your branding. When you hire someone else, what your readers will ultimately get is their voice. When they see you later at your website or on your social media, your voice will not be the same. This will trigger a feeling of inconsistency when relationships need to be built upon trust and authenticity. Your audience will eventually come to think you are not the “real deal” and will find another to replace you. Finally, your book is a springboard and launching pad to greater things such as speaking, interviews, a product line, etc. Will your ghost writer be available for all of that as well? How will you be able to “ghost write” your way through an interview? Hence the reason I stress speaking in your own voice. You may think you are not perfect, but your authenticity will speak in volumes to your followers and they will be customers for life if they see your true being.
— Kytka Hilmar-Jezek, Book Power: A Platform for Writing, Branding, Positioning & Publishing
I am in complete alignment with my thinking with this statement by F. F. Bruce: 'Whether our approach is theological or historical, it does matter whether the New Testament documents are reliable or not'." ~R. Alan Woods [2013]
— R. Alan Woods, The Journey Is the Destination: A Book of Quotes With Commentaries
In the 56 years I have been a disciple of and in union with Jesus Christ and in my opinion, John Wimber was the most authentic, humble, accessible, and anointed 'Christ-like' man I have ever known." ~R. Alan Woods [2013]
— R. Alan Woods, John Wimber: Naturally Supernatural
There are no heroes...in life, the monsters win.
— George R.R. Martin
Hazel squinted. "How far?""Just over the river and through the woods."Percy raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? To Grandmother's house we go?"Frank cleared his throat. "Yeah, anyway.
— Rick Riordan, The Son of Neptune
Aphros nodded, a glint of pride in his eyes. “We have trained all the famous mer-heroes! Name a famous mer-hero, and we have trained him or her!”“Oh, sure,” Leo said. “Like…um, the Little Mermaid?”Aphros frowned. “Who? No! Like Triton, Glaucus, Weissmuller, and Bill!”“Oh. ”Leo had no idea who any of those people were. “You trained Bill? Impressive.
— Rick Riordan, The Mark of Athena
No, what he didn't like about heroes was that they were usually suicidally gloomy when sober and homicidally insane when drunk.
— Terry Pratchett, The Color of Magic
Unconsciously we all have a standard by which we measure other men, and if we examine closely we find that this standard is a very simple one, and is this: we admire them, we envy them, for great qualities we ourselves lack. Hero worship consists in just that. Our heroes are men who do things which we recognize, with regret, and sometimes with a secret shame, that we cannot do. We find not much in ourselves to admire, we are always privately wanting to be like somebody else. If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.
— Mark Twain
But I am the real Strider, fortunately. I am Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save you, I will.
— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Heroes don't exist. And if they did, I wouldn't be one of them.
— Brodi Ashton, Everneath
The real heroes are the librarians and teachers who at no small risk to themselves refuse to lie down and play dead for censors.
— Bruce Coville
As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.
— Ernest Hemingway
Being a hero means ignoring how silly you feel.
— Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock
I like my coffee black, my beer from Germany, wine from Burgundy, the darker, the better. I like my heroes complicated and brooding, James Dean in oiled leather, leaning on a motorcycle. You know the color. ("Ode to Chocolate")
— Barbara Crooker, More
Everybody wanted to be the hero of their own story. Nobody wanted to be comic relief.
— Lev Grossman, The Magician King
You were the one who taught me," he said. "I never looked at you without seeing the sweetness of the way the world goes together, or without sorrow for its spoiling. I became a hero to serve you, and all that is like you.
— Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
People are not born heroes or villains
—  they’re created by the people around them.
Every student, Shadowhunter and mundane alike, knew the name Herondale. It was Jace’s last name. It was the name of heroes.
— Cassandra Clare, The Lost Herondale
When you're truly awesome, you know that it's actually a burden and wish day after day to be relieved of such a curse. Think of about 95% of the superheroes.
— Criss Jami, Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality
I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel.
— Florence Nightingale
Men have to have heroes, but no man can ever be as big as the need, and so a legend grows around a grain of truth, like a pearl.
— Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly rise and make them miserable.
— Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means
I took in a deep breath, and smoke twisted around my head as I let it slip through my teeth. “Do you know what my favorite show was when I was a little kid?”The look again. “I would have no idea.”“Doctor Who. British sci-fi show.”“I am familiar with it. Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, and Matt—““No,” I said. “The new show’s great, but I grew up on the old one. The low-budget, rubber monster show with Tom Baker and Peter Davison. I watched it on PBS all the time as a kid.”I looked out at the dark ruins of Hollywood, at the stumbling shadows dotting the streets as far as you could see. The only other living person within half a mile was standing behind me, her eyes boring into my head.“The Doctor didn’t have super-powers or weapons or anything like that. He was just a really smart guy who always tried to do the right thing. To help people, no matter what. That struck me when I was a kid. The idea that no matter how cold and callous and heartless the world seemed, there was somebody out there who just wanted to make life better. Not better for worlds or countries in some vague way. Just better for people trying to live their lives, even if they didn’t know about him.”I turned back to her and tapped my chest. “That’s what this suit’s always been about. Not scaring people like you or Gorgon do. Not some sort of pseudo-sexual roleplay or repressed emotions. I wear this thing, all these bright colors, because I want people to know someone’s trying to make their lives better. I want to give them hope.
— Peter Clines, Ex-Heroes
And you,You can be meanAnd I,I'll drink all the time'Cause we're lovers,And that is a factYes we're lovers,And that is that
— David Bowie
But no man's a hero to himself.
— Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes
Real heroes are men who fall and fail and are flawed, but win out in the end because they've stayed true to their ideals and beliefs and commitments.
— Kevin Costner
He did what heroes do after their work is accomplished
—  he died.
All the heroes of tomorrow are the heretics of today.
— E.Y. Harburg
Heroes are those who can somehow resist the power of the situation and act out of noble motives, or behave in ways that do not demean others when they easily can.
— Philip G. Zimbardo
To be heroic does not have to mean possessing the ability to stand against the evils of the world, either well or successfully, but just that one is willing to stand.
— Mike Alsford, Heroes and Villains
What? A great man? I only ever see the ape of his own ideal.
— Friedrich Nietzsche
That's why you can't give up. Heroes don't give up.
— Kiera Cass, Happily Ever After
I have made calculations that would beggar your soul. What is it that villains always say at the end of stories? You and I are more alike than you think? Well,” the Marquess took September’s hand in hers and very gently kissed it. “We are. Oh, how alike we are! I feel very warmly towards you, and I only want to protect you, as I wish someone had protected me. Come, September, look out the window with me. It’s not a difficult thing. A show of faith, let’s call it.
— Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
see, heroes never die. John Wayne isn't dead, Elvis isn't dead. Otherwise you don’t have a hero. You can’t kill a hero. That’s why I never let him get older.
— Mickey Spillane
It was so much more comfortable to be able to divide people into heroes and villains and expect them to play their allotted part.
— Mary Balogh, First Comes Marriage
Sometimes the good guy rips out innocent people's throats. That's just something the world need to live with if it wants the good guy to keep saving the day.
— Bradley Sands, Rico Slade Will Fucking Kill You
I think—the hero observes that nothing is so frightening as a labyrinth with no center.
— Jorge Luis Borges, Selected Non-Fictions
There is power within great sacrifice, within noble deeds. There are moments... brief, shining moments when the impossible becomes possible.
— Kelly Keaton, A Beautiful Evil
A society manufactures the heroes it requires.
— Colson Whitehead, Zone One
But heroes, at times, had to be fools.
— Steve Berry, The Venetian Betrayal
Yes, there are plenty of heroes and heroines everywhere you look. They are not famous people. They are generally obscure and modest people doing useful work, keeping their families together and taking an active part in the health of their communities, opposing what is evil (in one way or another) and defending what is good. Heroes do not want power over others.
— Edward Abbey, Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast
A dead man who never caused others to die seldom rates a statue.
— W.H. Auden
Some people ask me whether I'm a "mama's girl" or a "papa's girl". I'm *nobody's* girl. My brother clings to our parents; I'm the one shoving them out the door.
— Hayden Panettiere
Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts.
— Paul Simon, The Definitive Paul Simon Songbook
The hero, it might be said, is called into being when perception of a need an the recognition of responsibility toward it are backed up by the will to act.
— Mike Alsford, Heroes and Villains
To be heroic may mean nothing more than this then, to stand in the face of the status quo, in the face of an easy collapse into the madness of an increasingly chaotic world and represent another way.
— Mike Alsford, Heroes and Villains
The rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other, great or small. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I also am a steward. Did you not know?
— J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Hereos. Idols. They're never who you think they are. Shorter. Nastier. Smellier. And when you finally meet them, there's something that makes you want to choke the shit out of them.
— Paul Beatty, Slumberland
Show me a hero and I'll show you a bum.
— Gregory Boyington, Baa Baa Black Sheep
When she had asked him how he was able to kill two men with his bare hands, he had gone into asshole mode, telling her not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
— Brad Taylor, One Rough Man
Heroes endure because we need them. Not for their own sakes.
— Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Princess
All of us, together, are the unlovable, the unreformable. We, the people, who are deemed incapable of existing alongside society. But, we did just that in the forming of this guild. We have done more than simply build a place to sleep and eat and plan elaborate heists. We have found a place that we, at long last, belong. All of you remember how important that feeling was the first time you truly experienced it here… This guild is more than just an organization and a council and various members. To me, from the beginning, this guild has been a family. It is a place for people like us, the ones who had no place of their own. We made it ourselves, carved out a space in the world that we could call home.
— Drew  Hayes, Forging Hephaestus
Trying to shatter peace, even if it’s not one you agree with, is the work of the mad and the wicked.
— Drew  Hayes, Forging Hephaestus
Remember when being a villain was all about wild nights and brawls in the street?
— Drew  Hayes, Forging Hephaestus
Meeting one’s heroes is always such a disappointment.
— Lavie Tidhar, The Violent Century
He is a true hero," she said, "a dragonslayer, a giantkiller, a rescuer of maidens, a solver of impossible riddles. He may be the greatest hero of all, because he's a good man as well. They aren't always.
— Peter S. Beagle, Two Hearts
If something went wrong, he’d pay the price. He couldn’t allow any innocent people to be hurt this time. From HEAR NO EVIL
— Sue Ward Drake, Hear No Evil
Maybe the wild ones weren't hyperactive; maybe they were misplaced heroes. After all, in another era, the same behavior that is now throttled with Ritalin and disciplinary rap sheets would have been the mark of greatness, the early blooming of a true champion. Riordan played with the idea, imagining the what-ifs. What if strong, assertive children were redirected rather than discouraged? What if there were a place for them, an outdoor training camp that felt like a playground, where they could cut loose with all those natural instincts to run, wrestle, climb, swim, and explore?
— Christopher McDougall, Natural Born Heroes: How a Daring Band of Misfits Mastered the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance
Don't just steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style. You don't want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes.
— Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
Heroes rarely get to rest when they desire to.
— C.J. Brightley, The Lord of Dreams
Yes, I might have been quiet and shy, the kind of person who did my best to keep my head down just to get through the day. But even then, I had never let people walk all over me. Even in the days when I didn't know a left hook from a karate chop, I'd still always found my own ways of fighting for the things I believed in.
— Danielle  Paige
Praising heroes who slay monsters is a writer’s most ancient task.
— David Burr Gerrard, Short Century: A Novel
Every superhero, every Chosen One, goes through a painful and difficult process of Becoming. On this, all the relevant literature is in agreement. Ask any comic book aficionado, any movie buff. The heroes doubt themselves, even when confronted with irrefutable evidence. They've spent their whole lives listening to weak and powerless people who hate and fear anything that is different, who say that superhuman abilities simply don't exist, and they believe it.
— Sam J. Miller, The Art of Starving
I like to read stories where heroes are actually heroes.
— Richard Rigoli
Jill had, as you might say, quite fall in love with the Unicorn. She thought- and she wasn't far wrong- that he was the shiningest, delicatest, most graceful animal she had ever met; and he was so gentle and soft of speech that, if you hadn't known, you would hardly have believed how fierce and terrible he could be in battle."Oh, this is nice!" said Jill. "Just walking along like this. I wish there could be more of this sort of adventure. It's a pity there's always so much happening in Narnia."But the Unicorn explained to her that she was quite mistaken. He said that the Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve were brought out of their own strange world into Narnia only at times when Narnia was stirred and upset, but she mustn't think it was always like that. In between their visits there were hundreds and thousands of years when peaceful King followed peaceful King till you could hardly remember their names or count their numbers, and there was really hardly anything to put into the History Books. And he went on to talk of old Queens and heroes whom she had never heard of. He spoke of Swanwhite the Queen who had lived before the days of the White Witch and the Great Winter, who was so beautiful that when she looked into any forest pool the reflection of her face shone out of the water like a star by night for a year and a day afterwards. He spoke of Moonwood the Hare who had such ears that he could sit by Caldron Pool under the thunder of the great waterfall and hear what men spoke in whispers at Cair Paravel. He told how King Gale, who was ninth in descent from Frank the first of all Kings, had sailed far away into the Eastern seas and delivered the Lone Islanders from a dragon and how, in return, they had given him the Lone Islands to be part of the royal lands of Narnia for ever. He talked of whole centuries in which all Narnia was so happy that notable dances and feasts, or at most tournaments, were the only things that could be remembered, and every day and week had been better than the last. And as he went on, the picture of all those happy years, all the thousands of them, piled up in Jill's mind till it was rather like looking down from a high hill on to a rich, lovely plain full of woods and waters and cornfields, which spread away and away till it got thin and misty from distance.
— C.S. Lewis
The Great Magician is very clear when he says there will always be trouble in the world. As for any human today, in my book, that is a call to action. That’s a call to our own inner hero. That hero is inside all of us whether we be fat, skinny, tall, short, black, white, olive, or yellow. We all have the capacity to be heroes in this life.
— Mark Andrew Poe, Showdown on Nightingale Lane
We're our own heroes.
— Gwenda Bond, Double Down
[Eddie] wondered if every criminal saw himself as the hero of his own story and if every thankless son was convinced he'd been mistreated by his father.
— Alice Hoffman, The Museum of Extraordinary Things
we sometimes think we need to look ahead for that herowhen the hero is a friend a family member or someone we just meteveryone has the potential to be that and admired and a respected soul .... treat everyone as a hero and you in turn becomes one...
— levi paul taylor
A hero is merely a man never afraid of being called to heaven because he is certain he has done his duty, Nicholas."  -Admiral Lord Nelson (fictional)
— Ted Bell, Nick of Time
We are never the heroes of our own stories, unless we are lying. If we choose to count ourselves among the brave, we write ourselves as the villains we are, hoping for redemption.
— Suzanne Rindell, Three-Martini Lunch
Some men will never be heroes, some heroes will never be men, he thought, with urgent acknowledgements to Joseph Conrad.
— John le Carré, The Russia House
We were thinkers not talkers.We were problems not solutions.We were heroes of the dark, villains with a spark.
— M.L van de Weetering
They blew out a breath and did the thing all heroes must do—they took that terrifying first step.
— Chloe Neill, Midnight Marked
I always find heroes who are just like me, I forget they’re only human, and like me, broken
— Terrence Alonzo Craft, The Seed Bridge: Collected Poems
Heroes in the stories never had to sleep in haystacks, or under hedges. But it was not easy to pretend, anymore, that he was a hero in a story.
— Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World
I've lost so many battles than I can even remember. But I didn't know I was stronger than I thought.
— Ufuoma Apoki
I'm still angry with him, but I follow him through the drizzle anyway. Because this is Levi. This is my hero. And you always follow your heroes, even when you're mad, even when you'd rather punch them in the mouth. That's how trust works. It's blind and unconditional and it takes you places you can't reach by yourself.Just like love.
— Chelsea Fine, Best Kind of Broken
The story of John Ritter illustrates what it means to be a hero and how we treat our heroes. When we idealize real people they lose their humanity. They are turned into idols that we worship and may later want to destroy. Heroes are transformed from conscious-feeling fellow homo sapiens into characters in our stories. The greatest hero-characters will become legends or even mythic characters. We might think we know them, but when they are idolized they become more like treasured memories, existing in our minds as archetypal characters, rather than living-breathing human beings with thoughts and feelings of their own.
— Jeff Rasley, Hero's Journey: John Ritter, the Chip Hilton of Goshen, Indiana; a Memoir
Your grandfather was a hero in a war, girls. He wasn't a bad man or a weak man. Maybe he was too old to have a second family, a second wife and your mother and me, so many years after he lost his first. Maybe he was too old to fight anymore, and that's why he let me be taken away. I've thought about this for years and years. All I know is there are no heroes in this world. Not really. Just men and women who become old and tired and lose the strength to fight for what they love any longer.
— Joseph Boyden, Through Black Spruce
Yes. Loving somebody isn't a one time thing, its an everyday thing. Something you do to them, with them, for them. Because of them. Every day, all day. And night." ~Solomon~
— Lucian Bane, Desecrating Solomon
Why do we love heroes? Because life is a fight.
— Bangambiki Habyarimana
Besides, two kinds of people have the courage to make someone else's decisions: the hero, who comes to your rescue when you can't even cry out for help, and the tyrant. The only difference between them is the hero listens. As soon as you can talk, he'll put you down if you say so.
— Skyler White, The Incrementalists
As the Great Magician says, there will always be trouble in the world. That’s why I say, there will always be a time for heroes.
— Mark Andrew Poe, Halloween Nightmares
The difference between being Achilles and almost being Achilles is the difference between living and dying.
— Thomas C. Foster, How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines
You democratize heroism. Everybody is a hero, and simply for doing (and often not well at that) the ordinary tasks of living as a half-decent person. Does your mother fix you breakfast? She is a hero. Does your father visit you every weekend without fail? A hero. Does your teacher mark your papers faithfully when you make a mistake? Unexampled heroism, that. If everyone is a hero, then no one is a hero; and genuine heroes will go unnoticed in all the mindless self-congratulation.
— Anthony M. Esolen
The indie kids, huh? You've got them at your school, too. That group with the cool-geek haircuts and the charity shop clothes and names from the fifties. Nice enough, never mean, but always the ones who end up being the Chosen One when the vampires come calling or when the alien queen needs the Source of All Light or something. They're too cool to ever, ever do anything like go to prom or listen to music other than jazz while reading poetry. They've always got some story going on that they're heroes of. The rest of us just have to live here, hovering around the edges, left out of it all, for the most part.
— Patrick Ness
Colin reached out and grabbed hold o fine car engine, ripping it. He lifted it above his head. Solomon Cord dropped the wrench and said God it is true.
— Michael Carroll
You marvel and applaud big heroes in their big heroic actions, and forget you are a hero in your humble life and have modest heroic actions to complete yourself.
— Bangambiki Habyarimana
Do-oh died on March 14, 2007, just as the buds of her beloved drooping cherry trees behind her house were ready to burst. Having surpassed by two years her goal to live until seventy-five, she had, by her own measure, defeated the atomic bomb. "What I mean is - I mean, they dropped the bombs thinking everyone will die, right? But not everyone was killed. I think it takes great emotional strength and force of will to triumph over nuclear weapons.
— Susan Southard
Heroes don’t seek attention. But they show up continually in the little things. Train your eyes to look for them. They may not be as loud as the headlines or newsfeeds. But they’re all around you, multitudes of them. Train your eyes and listen with your heart… Both rightfully know that the quiet things, the little things, they are the big things. They are far more important than the noise of the world.
— Renata Bowers
Of all the stories I have read about heroes, and all that I could ever read, of one thing I'm certain-he is mine.
— Camron Wright, The Rent Collector
Charms and oaths and guardian spirits were all the product of a need for something to believe in because people didn’t believe in themselves, a need to let problems resolve on their own rather than confront them. People were predominantly fearful of disruption, even of the things they found overbearing, even as they attempted to wish them away. It was why they invented heroes. It was why the world suffered through long periods of stagnation between innovations. Because rather than change the things that needed change, people preferred to cower and wait until a hero arrived to do it for them. Assuming by that point it was not already too late.
— Sean DeLauder, The Least Envied
Is it not obvious? What is life but a betrayal? We start out young, full of hope. The sun is good, the world awaits us. But every passing year shows how small you are, how insignificant against the power of the seasons. Then you age. Your strength fails and the world laughs at you through the jeers of younger men. And you die. Alone. Unfulfilled. But sometimes . . . sometimes there will come a man who is not insignificant. He can change the world, rob the seasons of their power. He is the sun.
— David Gemmell
The entire world has benefited and prospered since the decisive defeat of Yellow Fever, an unconventional and far-reaching military victory derived from the field medical discoveries of U.S. Army Major Dr. Walter Reed, designed and carried out by U.S. Army Major Dr. William Gorgas with the overall support under the command of U.S. Army General Leonard Wood.
— T.K. Naliaka
Everybody in this academy, Shadowhunters and mundanes, people with the Sight and without it, every one of them is looking to be a hero. We are all hoping for it, and trying for it, and soon we will all be bleeding for it.
— Cassandra Clare, Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy
For I was sure of one thing, it wasn't always the hero who saved the world. It was the person most willing to die first.
— R.K. Ryals, Fist of the Furor
There’s no happy ending ... Nevertheless, we might well say that is exactly Harriet Beecher Stowe’s point. In 1852 slavery had not been abolished. Slaves were still on the plantations and many of them were in the hands of people like Legree. Her book was written to shame the collective conscience of America into action against an atrocity which was still continuing. So a happy ending would have been, frankly, a lie and a betrayal. ...Most of the charges are basically true. Stowe did stereotype. She did sentimentalize. She offered a role model which later offended African American pride. On the other hand, what she did worked. She wasn’t trying to provide a role model for African Americans. She was trying to make white Americans ashamed of themselves. ...Perhaps the short answer to her critics is to ask, “Do you want glory, approval, all those good things? Or do you want to achieve your goal?
— Thomas A. Shippey
Garahel always used to say that heroism was just another word for horror, and maybe a worse one. A hero always feels that he has to do what's right. Sometimes that leads to tormenting himself with doubt long after the deed is done.
— Liane Merciel
Heroes get kingdoms and princesses, and they take regular exercise, and when they smile the light glints off their teeth,  ting 
— Terry Pratchett
He sounded like he was used to people swearing at him, which made no damnedsense, because he was gorgeous and a hero.
— Cate Cameron, Center Ice
In our human imagination, we so often perceive our Heroes to be something larger than life. We exalt them in ways that do them a disservice....we convince ourselves that they are or were something essentially different than the rest of us.
— Ravi Zacharias
Theories are there. Heroes are here
— Robert J. Braathe
Our heroes are over there where the white crosses are. We're survivors over here. None of us are heroes. I don't think you'll talk to a man who say we are. You figure a hero is someone who does above and beyond the call of duty, and when you give your life that's as above and beyond as you can get- Earl McClung.
— Marcus Brotherton, We Who Are Alive and Remain: Untold Stories from the Band of Brothers
Even having saved the world doesn't make me feel good about myself. Perhaps it's something you get habituated to
—  each new world-saving moment has to be bigger and better than the last to give you that same dopamine and serotonin kick. Maybe heroes are just junkies.
Never say war insane at the moment for you to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.
— Auliq Ice
You have heroes? No? what kind of feeling exist in you?
— Da Anunciação Marco
Far to our left I could see a commercial airliner on final approach to Soekarno-Hatta. Far to our right I could see the outline of tall city buildings. The imagery was hard to ignore. In the midst was an impoverished world filled with dangerous radicals. Some believed it was God’s will to crash airplanes into buildings. Some recruited children to self-detonate on buses and in coffee shops. It must be incredibly difficult to hold fast to hope when you live in such a world. It’s also hard to keep faith with humanity when religious ideology is used as an impetus for war. But I also believe that for every war there is a hero … and for me, Jakarta will always be Indira’s city.
— Tucker Elliot, The Rainy Season
Who are your heroes?" asked Jo."Grandfather and Napoleon.
— Louisa May Alcott
Name one hero who was happy.
— Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles
Where there are villains, there will be heroes. Just wait. They will come.
— Brandon Sanderson, Steelheart
Heroes save worlds," Clary said. "They don't destroy them.
— Cassandra Clare, City of Heavenly Fire
Nobody is a villain in their own story. We're all the heroes of our own stories.
— George R.R. Martin
... and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout: 'Save us!'. And I'll look down and whisper: 'No.
— Alan Moore, Watchmen
You’re not really grown until you’ve lost your heroes.
— Daniel H. Wilson, Robogenesis
No war is ever glorious. Heroes are usually dead. Besides, they rarely turn into heroes because they are super-humans, but because of circumstances.
— Aleksandr Voinov, Special Forces - Soldiers
If you need inspiration, look into the eyes of people as you walk by them. They are looking for a hero; that person may be you.
— Robert J. Braathe
We often look outside to find our hero when there is one inside of each of us. Be your own hero today.
— Robert J. Braathe
Be the hero, the example and the perfection that you are.
— Robert J. Braathe
Tenacity runs thick in the veins of a villain.
— Cheyanne Young, Overpowered
Go ahead, scoff, he said, petulant. Except in the life of a hero, the whole world's meaningless. The hero sees values beyond what's possible. That's the nature of a hero. It kills him, of course, ultimately. But it makes the whole struggle of humanity worthwhile.
— John Gardner, Grendel
A pair of starfighters. Jedi starfighters. Only two.Two is enough.Two is enough because the adults are wrong, and their younglings are right.Though this is the end of the age of heroes, it has saved its best for last.
— Matthew Woodring Stover, Revenge of the Sith
Cowards are always much more dangerous than heroes.
— Lance Conrad, The Price of Creation
I wonder if it's a special sin to lie to a nun
— Robert Cormier
Because it is on the anvil of pain that the gods forge heroes.
— C.L. Werner, Blighted Empire
Danny could see it in their faces when they shook Steve’s hand—they’d have preferred him dead. Death allowed for the illusion of heroism. The maimed turned that illusion into an uncomfortable odor.
— Dennis Lehane, The Given Day
Wind-voice looked in amazement at the sword in his claws. “I—I’ll keep it safe,” he muttered to Winger. “For the hero, when he comes…”Winger was smiling a light, dreamy smile that radiated all over his thin face. “The hero is here, Wind-voice,” he said, awed. “You’re the hero.
— Nancy Yi Fan, Sword Quest
I have lived long enough to see real, significant changes made for the good...and I have been fortunate enough to have participated in some of them...One person can make a difference!(Father Ted Hesburgh, C.S.C., quoted in our book, God's Icebreaker by Jill A. Boughton and Julie Walters)
— Jill A.  Boughton, God's Icebreaker: The Life and Adventures of Father Ted Hesburgh of Notre Dame
I come in peace unto you
—  heroes do not need weapons.
Heroes endure because we need them. Not for their own sake.
— Cassandra Clare
It drives me crazy who quickly the great ones get canonized. 'Blah-blah-blah is such a terrible loss.' Does that mean that the death of one mediocre slob is not as terrible? Do fags have to be geniuses to justify living?
— Sarah Schulman, Rat Bohemia
A boy adopts a hero for two reasons: because a hero captivates his soul and serves as a projection of his innermost self; and, because a hero seems to have solved many problems that may worry a boy, or at least demonstrates the capacity to solve them. The hero is an idealization of successful living, even though he may die in a story. The death may be gallant, brave, tragic, or perhaps even foolhardy. But living or dead, a hero is the stylistic embodiment of living on one’s own terms – noble terms, grand terms, exciting terms – terms, in short, that complement any youth’s uncorrupted, untamed, unabridged projection of what is possible to him in life
— Edward Cline, Hugh Kenrick
The reason I'm attracted to the light of Scripture is because there's another side of me that is dark. The reason I am interested in men of peace is because I'm not like them and would like to be. I'm not someone in real life who turns the other cheek.
— Bono
Hero love?” I was puzzled. “You know. The kind of love you have for someone you want to be like: Marines, astronauts, cowboys, teachers, big brothers, that sort of thing. You love them because they represent the you that you want to be.
— Leland Dirks, Seven Dogs in Heaven
Being a good mother is being a hero. Right?
— Francesca Lia Block, Necklace of Kisses
Write down five character traits you admire most in your personal heroes. You now have a list of traits to emulate in your own life.
— Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
Life would have been easier if he'd never taught her to believe in heroes by handing her those cookies that day, but it wouldn't have been nearly as magnificent either.
— Kele Moon, Crossing the Line
Don't forget who your heroes are, what they mean to you, and why they mean that to you.
— Gale Harold
Heroes do not dwell in a time of peace; heroes are hardened in a kiln against the sorrows. Their troubles sharpen the blade and make it gleaming. The glint becomes a brightness that is raised high on a hill, allowing women and men to see beyond themselves. For light swallows darkness. Truth buries death. Heroes are not born. They are filled by Music.
— David Paul Kirkpatrick, The Address Of Happiness
We are here because the world needs heroes.
— Robert J. Braathe
The modern hero is a person who does something everyone thinks they could do if they were a little stronger, a little faster, a little smarter, or a little more generous. Heroes in ancient times were the link between men and perfect beings, gods. Heroes in modern times are the link between man as he is and man as he could be.
— John Edwards
Heroic dreams are the consolation of the unhappy. After all, when people like us say we're being heroic, it usually means we're about to kill each other--or kill ourselves.
— Orhan Pamuk, Snow
We were supposed to be heroes.”“There’s no such thing as heroes.”Conversation between ‘Alis K’ and ‘Borge’The Informer by Steen Langstrup
— Steen Langstrup, The Informer
It's better to talk about a dead hero than a living zero
— Umar Hassan
My generation must have despair. - Leonard Bernstein Ch 40/Dog Water Free, A Memoir
— Michael Jay
Some writers, notably Anton Chekov, argue that all characters must be admirable, because once we've looked at anyone deeply enough and understood their motivation we must identify with them rather than judge them.
— Scarlett Thomas, Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories
I'm not a legend or a hero, I don't slay dragons, I don't do any of the things that a real hero can. But I can make things better, one day at a time, for most of the kingdom.
— Mercedes Lackey, Fortune's Fool
Not every girl can be Isabelle Lightwood or Katniss Everdeen. I think the true measure of a hero is what a person does with what they have, how hard they are willing to fight, and how far they are willing to go to set things right.
— Sarah Cross, Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader
No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero
— Frank Herbert, Dune
Today the word "hero" has been diminished. confused with "celebrity." But in my father's generation the word meant something. celebrities seek fame. They take actions to get attention. Most often, the actions they take have no particular moral content. Heroes are heroes because they have risked something to help others. Their actions involve courage. Often, those heroes have been indifferent to the public's attention. But at least, the hero could understand the focus of the emotion.
— James D. Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers
Tragic heroes are failed pragmatists. Their ends are unrealistic and their means are impractical.
— Adam Phillips, Missing Out: In Praise of the Unlived Life
There will always be trouble so there will always be a time for heroes
— David Paul Kirkpatrick, The Address Of Happiness
Let's Not Just Be Heroes! Let's Be Heroes Who Lead!
— Daniel Wetta
The world should not be organized to require heroines, and when one is required but fails to appear we should not judge. We should just say, poor Camille, she turned into a bitch the way most people would have—and stay out of her way.
— Ann-Marie MacDonald, Fall on Your Knees
He turned one of his death rays into an ice cream maker, except he said I shouldn’t eat too much of it at once.”I nodded slowly. “Right,” I said. “That’s…sweet, I think.
— Acacia Ackles
As long as I live, I will always remember those wee children standing at the railing on that ship." - John Hanlon, the sailor
— Deana J. Driver, The Sailor and the Christmas Trees
No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes, if they know that that knowledge will help set you free.
— Assata Shakur
There’s no glory in this whole shit. No war is ever glorious. Heroes are usually dead. Besides, they rarely turn into heroes because they are super-humans, but because of circumstances.Heroes rarely think. Heroes just act. So, all this is, is a stage for glory, small, personal and up to each one of us.
— Aleksandr Voinov, Special Forces - Soldiers
In our hyper-secular world, worship is still inevitable. But it is vital to remember that our gods don't choose us, we choose them.
— John Green
And you came back to Lyrian?" Galloran said in disbelief."Believe it or not, I came through the same hippopotamus that brought me here the first time. Jumped into the tank on purpose. I wanted to keep others from wasting their time pursuing the Word. And I couldn't ditch Rachel."Galloran smiled. "Truly, you are possessed by that species of madness that begets heroism.
— Brandon Mull, The Candy Shop War
What do you see when you see me?' She asked him, burying her own face in his bosom. 'Do you want the truth?'She nodded.'The firing squad.''That's not the whole truth. Try again.''Insatiability,' he said with some bitterness.'That's oblique but altogether too simple. Once more,' she insisted. 'One more time.'He was silent for several minutes.'The map of a country in which I only exist by virtue of the extravagance of my metaphors.''Now you're being too sophisticated. And, besides, what metaphors do we have in common?
— Angela Carter, Heroes and Villains
The youth, intoxicated with his admiration of a hero, fails to see, that it is only a projection of his own soul, which he admires.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
There’s a long, uncomfortable silence in which I contemplate what might happen next. Maybe like the villain in a movie, this is where she gives me a long spiel about her hard-up life before she kills me. Not that I totally believe she’s nefarious. Real life isn’t made up of heroes and villains. Just ordinary people making choices they have to live with.
— Kat Kruger, The Night Has Teeth
I’d once again see that bob of blonde hair back on my pillow, that pink hot smile beaming toward me as I heroically win her heart in some kind of Count of Monte Cristo or Great Gatsby-esque gesture… you know minus the long imprisonment or swimming pool death!
— Tom Conrad
When a man losses faith he betrays a hero
— Elizabeth J. Kolodziej
Now, where do I bring this thing down?" I asked. There was a hesitation, then, "You don't. We didn't design it to return. It was a redundancy we had no need for. Too costly, in terms of resources." "So what do I do? I just saved the Earth. And now I suffocate out here?
— Neil Gaiman
I had to get over [him]. For months now, a stone had been sitting on my heart. I'd shed a lot of tears over [him], lost a lot of sleep, eaten a lot of cake batter. Somehow, I had to move on. [Life] would be hell if I didn't shake loose from the grip he had on my heart. I most definitely didn't want to keep feeling this way, alone in a love affair meant for two. Even if he'd felt like The One. Even if I'd always thought we'd end up together. Even if he still had a choke chain on my heart.
— Kristan Higgins, All I Ever Wanted
The only thing a boyfriend was good for was a shattered heart.
— Becca Fitzpatrick, Crescendo
As Qhuinn looked at his best friend's handsome face, he felt as if he'd never not known that red hair, those blue eyes, those lips, that jaw. And it was because of their long history that he searched for something to say, something that would get them back to where they had been. All that came to him was . . . I miss you. I miss you so fucking bad it hurts, but I don't know how to find you even though you're right in front of me.
— J.R. Ward, Lover Mine
Sharp are the arrows of a broken heart.
— Cassandra Clare, City of Heavenly Fire
She went around with a broken heart, and she wasn't sure who'd broken it. She thought it was herself, mostly.
— Ann Brashares