Hero quotes

Hero

3.2K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

3.2K quotes

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Hero quotes (page 26 of 160)

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Ralph Waldo Emerson Essayist, Philosopher, Poet
Hero

"Will is the measure of power. To a great genius there must be a great will. If the thought is not a lamp to the will, does not proceed to an act, the wise are imbecile. He alone is strong and happy who has a will. The rest are herds. He uses; they are used. He is of the Maker; they are of the Made. Will is always miraculous, being the presence of God to men. When it appears in a man he is a hero, and all metaphysics are at fault."

Strong Wise Hero
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Hero

"And then Jack chopped down what was the world's last beanstalk, adding murder and ecological terrorism to the theft, enticement, and trespass charges already mentioned, and all the giant's children didn't have a daddy anymore. But he got away with it and lived happily ever after, without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done...which proves that you can be excused for just about anything if you are a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions."

Children Hero Daddy
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Thomas Carlyle Essayist, Historian, Novelist
Hero

"The greatest of all heroes is One--whom we do not name here! Let sacred silence meditate that sacred matter; you will find it the ultimate perfection of a principle extant throughout man's whole history on earth."

Men Names Hero
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Thomas Jefferson Politician, Founding Father
Hero

"I feel a much greater interest in knowing what has passed two or three thousand years ago, than in what is now passing. I read nothing, therefore, but of the heroes of Troy, ... of Pompey and Caesar, and of Augustus too."

Two Knowing Hero
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Robert Downey, Jr. Actor, Producer
Hero

"I think a hero is someone who, if abroad or traveling, they go to the GOOP website to see what shops to go to, what restaurants to eat at, what clothes to buy, and they do that not fearlessly but in spite of their fear."

Thinking Hero Clothes
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Orhan Pamuk Novelist, Screenwriter
Hero

"My hero wants to belong too, but he doesn't want to give up all the things he came to value in the west."

Want Hero Giving Up
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Hero

"I haven't purposefully set out to play heroes. I'm interested in playing the character who finds himself in extraordinary circumstances. But he's really either just saving himself or acting in the service of something that's important to him."

Character Play Hero
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Geddy Lee Musician
Hero

"The sudden passing of Jack Bruce is terribly sad news. One of the greatest rock bassists to ever live and a true and profound inspiration to countless musicians. He was one of my first bass heroes and was a major influence on my playing and my music. My heartfelt condolences to his family and fans."

Inspiration Hero Condolences
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Frank Miller Comic Book Artist
Hero

"My feeling is that the hero has now been defined by phrases like the odious one that we were all raised with - crimes does not pay. Of course it pays, you schmuck. That's not why we don't do it. We don't do it because it is wrong."

Artist Feelings Hero
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Nicolas Cage Actor, Producer
Hero

"Mel Blanc is a hero because of what he could do with his voice for all the Looney Tunes, the Warner Brothers cartoons, to be the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig. To me, he's a great actor."

Brother Hero Pigs
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Frank Rich Journalist
Hero

"There’s nothing entertaining about watching goons hurl venomous slurs at congressmen like the civil rights hero John Lewis and the openly gay Barney Frank. How curious that a mob fond of likening President Obama to Hitler knows so little about history that it doesn’t recognize its own small-scale mimicry of Kristallnacht."

Rights Hero Gay
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George R. R. Martin Novelist, Screenwriter
Hero

"You don't just have people who wake up in the morning and say, "What evil things can I do today, because I'm Mr. Evil?" People do things for what they think are justified reasons. Everybody is the hero of their own story, and you have to keep that in mind. If you read a lot of history, as I do, even the worst and most monstrous people thought they were the good guys. We're all very tangled knots."

Thinking Morning Hero
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Noam Chomsky Linguist, Philosopher, Activist
Hero

"The most interesting - in fact, inspiring - people I met there [Porto Alegre] are those who remain nameless: representatives of the international campesino movement, the East Timorese delegation,... - the usual heroes, who disappear, unknown, apart from the consequences of their work."

People Interesting Hero
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Leonardo DiCaprio Actor, Producer, Environmental Activist
Hero

"I grew up when I was 15 when I had my first opportunity in movies. I watched every great movie for a year and a half, and since then I've asked myself how I can emulate such artistry. That's really my motivation. I want to do something as good as my heroes have done."

Opportunity Hero Motivation
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Henry David Thoreau Writer, Philosopher
Hero

"A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their conscience also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part, and they are commonly treated as enemies by it."

Men Enemy Hero
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Henry Rollins Musician, Writer, Actor
Hero

"All my big heroes are literary, writers. I'd love to meet Jimmy Hendrix or John Coltrane, but I'd much rather meet Thomas Wolfe, or F. Scott Fitzgerald. Words and books have always meant a lot to me. That someone can take words and string them together to where they will move me is just a hell of a thing. It's amazing to me; more amazing to me than music or painting. It's always been the written word or the spoken word, like a great lecture or a great lyric, or a great poem. To me it's just amazing. And I always aspire toward capturing that, or my version of it."

Book Moving Hero
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