Quotes & Sayings About Acts Of Heroism

most true acts of heroism - reflections of one's deepest nature - remain unknown to the hero. — Boyd Varty

It does not take a great supernatural heroine or magical hero to save the world.
We all save it every day, and we all destroy it
in our own small ways
by every choice we make and every tiniest action resulting from that choice.
The next time you feel useless and impotent, remember what you are in fact doing in this very moment. And then observe your tiny, seemingly meaningless acts and choices coalesce and cascade together into a powerful positive whole.
The world
if it could
will thank you for it.
And if it does not ... well, a true heroine or hero does not require it. — Vera Nazarian

Once very smart people are paid huge sums of money to exploit the flaws in the financial system, they have the spectacularly destructive incentive to screw the system up further, or to remain silent as they watch it being screwed up by others. The cost, in the end, is a tangled-up financial system. Untangling it requires acts of commercial heroism - and even then the fix might not work. There was simply too much more easy money to be made by elites if the system worked badly than if it worked well. The whole culture had to want to change. "We know how to cure this," as Brad had put it. "It's just a matter of whether the patient wants to be treated. — Michael Lewis

a 1959 text for young Congolese soldiers studying to become NCOs in the Force Publique explained that history "reveals how the Belgians, by acts of heroism, managed to create this immense territory." Fighting the "Arab" slavers, "in three years of sacrifice, perseverance and steadfast endurance, they brilliantly completed the most humanitarian campaign of the century, liberating — Adam Hochschild

Acts of heroism are easy - becoming a hero is a bitch. — Adam Johnson

Alfred T. Slipper was a janitor. Most of the time (often, in fact) they treated him with disdain. They had no idea of the astonishing acts of heroism, the blinding light, contained within his outward humdrum disguise.
Only Alfred's parakeet, Dolores, knew who he was and what he could do. — Kate DiCamillo

In contrast to the "banality of evil," which posits that ordinary people can be responsible for the most despicable acts of cruelty and degradation of their fellows, I posit the "banality of heroism," which unfurls the banner of the heroic Everyman and Everywoman who heed the call to service to humanity when their time comes to act. When that bell rings, they will know that it rings for them. It sounds a call to uphold what is best in human nature that rises above the powerful pressures of Situation and System as the profound assertion of human dignity opposing evil. — Philip Zimbardo

One courageous act can make you a hero but frequent courageous acts will keep you a hero. — Amit Kalantri

Freedom of a nation cannot be won by solitary acts of heroism though they may be of the true type, never by heroism so called. — Mahatma Gandhi

There are quiet victories and struggles, great sacrifices of self, and noble acts of heroism, in it - even in many of its apparent lightnesses and contradictions - not the less difficult to achieve, because they have no earthly chronicle or audience - done every day in nooks and corners, and in little households, and in men's and women's hearts - any one of which might reconcile the sternest man to such a world, and fill him with belief and hope in it — Charles Dickens

The men history declares heroes are merely heroes because they failed to survive their benevolent acts. — Felix O. Hartmann

Simon thought I was lovely.
Was the Giggler out of the harem?
Was there even a harem left?
What did this mean?
Would I only think in questions now?
And if so, who is Eric Cartman's father? — Alice Clayton

Only the violent acts of men "count" toward something besides evil in a patriarchy. It is the male story of violence that is sanctioned both socially and aesthetically. The male hero and acts of heroism require violence. Everyone is okey dokey with that. We are only beginning to see that constricting set of truths open up a little. — Lidia Yuknavitch

Intimacy, says the phenomenologist Gaston Bachelard, is the highest value. I resist this statement at first. What about artistic achievement, or moral courage, or heroism, or altruistic acts, or work in the cause of social change? What about wealth or accomplishment? And yet something about it rings true, finally - that what we want is to be brought into relationship, to be inside, within. Perhaps it's true that nothing matters more to us than that. — Mark Doty

I do not believe that I am made of the stuff which constitutes heroes, because, in all of the hundreds of instances that my voluntary acts have placed me face to face with death, I cannot recall a single one where any alternative step to that I took occurred to me until many hours later. — Edgar Rice Burroughs

She'd been attacked. Just after she came to the Belt. She was seeing that it didn't happen twice."
"Attacked," Miller said, parsing the man's tone of voice. "Raped?"
"I didn't ask. — James S.A. Corey

In the context of September 11, there were so many that lost their lives that - how do you single out one person? There were so many acts of heroism that day from so many people, whether it be firemen and police officers in New York and our agents also. — Robert Mueller

It is youth that has discovered love as a weapon. — Peter Ustinov

Adults need to teach the children they love about sexual abuse so they know what to do if they encounter it. We need to prepare them so they know who to tell, should a violation occur, so they don't have to live with a painful secret, long into adulthood. — Carolyn Byers Ruch

On the Gallows Once
Kofi Awoonor

I crossed quite a few
of your rivers, my gods,
into this plain where thirst reigns
I heard the cry of mourners
the long cooing of the African wren at dusk
the laughter of the children at dawn
had long ceased
night comes fast in our land
where indeed are the promised vistas
the open fields, blue skies, the singing birds
and abiding love?
History records acts
of heroism, barbarism
of some who had power
and abused it massively
of some whose progenitors
planned for them
the secure state of madness
from which no storm can shake them;
of some who took the last ships
disembarked on some far-off shores and forgot
of some who simply laid down the load
and went home to the ancestors — Kofi Awoonor

Believe it or not, people went so far as to suggest that I might not be able to write songs anymore because now I am married. I tried to explain again that there are other things to write about besides boy meets girl, girl meets boy, boy breaks up with girl, girl is sad. — Lucinda Williams

We live in an age when selfinterest alone seems to determine all of man's acts - and what empathy, what emotion, what enthusiasm can ever grow out of self interest. It is pleasanter to dream of those times of dedication, sacrifice, and heroism that used to be, and that have left honorable traces upon the earth. — Germaine De Stael

There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism. — Alexander Hamilton

The greatest threat to mankind comes from the renunciation of individual scruple in favor of institutional denominators ... Real heroism lies, as it always will, not in conformity or even patriotism, but in acts of solitary moral courage. Which, come to think of it, is what we used to admire in our Christian savior — John Le Carre

Continued pain is a signal to the body that there's something wrong, not right.
Lucy Scarborough
Nancy Werlin — Nancy Werlin

Sometimes a technology is so awe-inspiring that the imagination runs away with it - often far, far away from reality. Robots are like that. A lot of big and ultimately unfulfilled promises were made in robotics early on, based on preliminary successes. — Daniel H. Wilson

How was it that he could move soldiers to great acts of heroism and sacrifices with impassioned speeches, yet his mouth went as dry as the northern desert when he thought to tell Malinali that he'd enjoyed their afternoon together? — T.L. Morganfield

However much of time, labor, or other means it takes to establish a reputation, it frequently happens that it requires nearly as much to maintain it. One who has written a good book, is expected on all occasions to "talk like a book." Or, if one has achieved an act of heroism, he is expected to perform acts of heroism for the edification of all who approach him. There are people who can never believe they see a lion unless they hear him roar. — Christian Nestell Bovee