[Ravensfort] As Heros Do

[L T]

I found a whole bunch of nifty quotes when doing a search for hero on "Bookshelf"

so I decided to share...

Superstars strive for approbation; heroes walk alone. Superstars crave consensus; heroes define
themselves by the judgment of a future they see it as their task to bring about. Superstars seek
success in a technique for eliciting support; heroes pursue success as the outgrowth of inner
values.
Henry A. Kissinger (b. 1923), U.S. Republican politician, Secretary of State. The New York Times
Book Review, reviewing Churchill by Norman Rose, Kissinger calls Churchill the "quintessential
hero.".

The ordinary man is involved in action, the hero acts. An immense difference.
Henry Miller (1891-1980), U.S. author. The Books in My Life, ch. 10 (1951).

Heroes are created by popular demand, sometimes out of the scantiest materials.
Gerald W. Johnson (1890-1980), U.S. author. American Heroes and Hero-Worship, ch. 1 (1943).

The fame of heroes owes little to the extent of their conquests and all to the success of the
tributes paid to them.
Jean Genet (1910-86), French playwright, novelist. Prisoner of Love, pt. 1 (1986; tr. 1989).

If youth is the period of hero-worship, so also is it true that hero-worship, more than anything
else, perhaps, gives one the sense of youth. To admire, to expand one's self, to forget the rut,
to have a sense of newness and life and hope, is to feel young at any time of life.
Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929), U.S. sociologist. Human Nature and the Social Order, ch. 8
(1902).

To have no heroes is to have no aspiration, to live on the momentum of the past, to be thrown back
upon routine, sensuality, and the narrow self.
Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929), U.S. sociologist. Human Nature and the Social Order, ch. 8
(1902).

Ultimately a hero is a man who would argue with the gods, and so awakens devils to contest his
vision. The more a man can achieve, the more he may be certain that the devil will inhabit a part
of his creation.
Norman Mailer (b. 1923), U.S. author. The Presidential Papers, Preface (1963)

It's true that heroes are inspiring, but mustn't they also do some rescuing if they are to be
worthy of their name? Would Wonder Woman matter if she only sent commiserating telegrams to the
distressed?
Jeanette Winterson (b. 1959), British author. Independent (London, 6 Jan. 1990).

There is probably an element of malice in the readiness to overestimate people: we are laying up
for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size.
Eric Hoffer (1902-83), U.S. philosopher. Reflections on the Human Condition, aph. 129 (1973).

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly rise and make
them miserable.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), British author. Ends and Means, ch. 8 (1937).

Now stiff on a pillar with a phallic air
Nelson stylites in Trafalgar Square
Reminds the British what once they were.
Lawrence Durrell (1912-90), British author. A Ballad of the Good Lord Nelson.

As a rule, all heroism is due to a lack of reflection, and thus it is necessary to maintain a mass
of imbeciles. If they once understand themselves the ruling men will be lost.
Ernest Renan (1823-92), French writer, critic, scholar. Orlando, in Caliban, act 2, sc. 1.

The world's made up of individuals who don't want to be heroes.
Brian Moore (b. 1921), Irish novelist. Sunday Times (London, 15 April 1990).

The high sentiments always win in the end, the leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat
always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes
to the pinch, human beings are heroic.
George Orwell (1903-50), British author. "The Art of Donald McGill" in Horizon (London, Sept.
1941; repr. in Collected Essays, 1961).

The opportunities for heroism are limited in this kind of world: the most people can do is
sometimes not to be as weak as they've been at other times.
Angus Wilson (1913-91), British author. Interview in Writers at Work (First Series, ed. by Malcolm
Cowley, 1958).

Listen, my friend, there are two races of beings. The masses teeming and happy-common clay, if you
like-eating, breeding, working, counting their pennies; people who just live; ordinary people;
people you can't imagine dead. And then there are the others-the noble ones, the heroes. The ones
you can quite well imagine lying shot, pale and tragic; one minute triumphant with a guard of
honor, and the next being marched away between two gendarmes.
Jean Anouilh (1910-87), French playwright. Henri, in Point of Departure, act 2.

Most people aren't appreciated enough, and the bravest things we do in our lives are usually known
only to ourselves. No one throws ticker tape on the man who chose to be faithful to his wife, on
the lawyer who didn't take the drug money, or the daughter who held her tongue again and again.
All this anonymous heroism.
Peggy Noonan (b. 1950), U.S. author, presidential speechwriter. What I Saw at the Revolution, ch.
13 (1990).

My defences were so great. The cocky rock and roll hero who knows all the answers was actually a
terrified guy who didn't know how to cry. Simple.
John Lennon (1940-80), British rock musician. Playboy (Chicago, Sept. 1980).

Fighting is like champagne. It goes to the heads of cowards as quickly as of heroes. Any fool can
be brave on a battlefield when it's be brave or else be killed.
Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949), U.S. novelist. Ashley Wilkes, in Gone with the Wind, vol. 2, pt. 4,
ch. 31 (19


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