48 Inspiring Quotes On Heroism

In a world that often celebrates courage and selflessness, heroism stands as a beacon of inspiration. It showcases individuals who, in the face of challenges and adversity, rise above to make a difference. Whether these acts of bravery are grand gestures or quiet moments of resolve, they capture the essence of the human spirit's potential for greatness. In this collection of 48 inspiring quotes, we delve into the wisdom and insights of thinkers, leaders, and everyday heroes who have articulated the power and impact of heroism. These words serve as reminders of the extraordinary within us all, encouraging us to embrace the virtues of bravery, integrity, and compassion. Prepare to be inspired as we explore the thoughts and reflections that celebrate the heroes who walk among us.

1. “Though much is taken, much abides; and thoughWe are not now that strength which in old daysMoved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;One equal temper of heroic hearts,Made weak by time and fate, but strong in willTo strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” - Alfred Lord Tennyson

2. “These are the times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.” - Abigail Adams

3. “Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary.” - Gerard Way

4. “Long ago I yearned to be a hero without knowing, in truth, what a hero was. Now, perhaps, I understand it a little better. A grower of turnips or a shaper of clay, a Commot farmer or a king--every man is a hero if he strives more for others than for himself alone.Once you told me that the seeking counts more than the finding. So, too, must the striving count more than the gain.” - Lloyd Alexander

5. “The thing about a hero, is even when it doesn't look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to keep digging, he's going to keep trying to do right and make up for what's gone before, just because that's who he is.” - Joss Whedon

6. “In the action business, when you don't want to say you ran like a mouse, you call it 'taking cover.' It's more heroic.” - Jim Butcher

7. “No one is an unjust villain in his own mind. Even - perhaps even especially - those who are the worst of us. Some of the cruelest tyrants in history were motivated by noble ideals, or made choices that they would call 'hard but necessary steps' for the good of their nation. We're all the hero of our own story.” - Jim Butcher

8. “I like it when a flower or a little tuft of grass grows through a crack in the concrete. It's so fuckin' heroic.” - George Carlin

9. “Sometimes, before you make any plans or resolutions, before you declare your heroic intent to persevere, you just have to cry.” - Jaclyn Dolamore

10. “Diese Haltung zur Opferung von Menschenleben ist seltsam. Militärbefehlshaber überlegen nicht zweimal, wenn sie Soldaten in die Schlacht schicken und dabei genau wissen, dass viele von ihnen sterben werden. [...] Andererseits verbietet es der Offiziersethos, einzelne Soldaten auszuwählen und ihnen zu befehlen, ihr Leben zu opfern [...]. Und doch - und das ist noch paradoxer - werden Soldaten, die eine solche Tat aus eigener Initiative vollbringen, als Helden betrachtet.” - J.M. Coetzee

11. “There is an electric fire in human nature tending to purify - so that among these human creatures there is continually some birth of heroism. The pity is that we must wonder at it, as we should at finding a pearl in the rubbish.” - John Keats

12. “Who is better off? The one who writes to revel in the voluptuousness of the life that surrounds them? Or the one who writes to escape the tediousness of that which awaits them outside? Whose flame will last longer?” - Roman Payne

13. “I was not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of caste.” - Charlotte Brontë

14. “It may not feel too classy, begging just to eat But you know who does that?Lassie, and she always gets a treat So you wonder what your part is Because you're homeless and depressed But home is where the heart is So your real home's in your chest Everyone's a hero in their own way Everyone's got villains they must face They're not as cool as mine But folks you know it's fine to know your place Everyone's a hero in their own way In their own not-that-heroic way So I thank my girlfriend Penny Yeah, we totally had sex She showed me there's so many different muscles I can flex There's the deltoids of compassion, There's the abs of being kind It's not enough to bash in headsYou've got to bash in minds Everyone's a hero in their own way Everyone's got something they can do Get up go out and fly Especially that guy, he smells like poo Everyone's a hero in their own way You and you and mostly me and you I'm poverty's new sheriff And I'm bashing in the slums A hero doesn't care if you're a bunch of scary alcoholic bums Everybody! Everyone's a hero in their own way Everyone can blaze a hero's trail Don't worry if it's hard If you're not a friggin 'tard you will prevail Everyone's a hero in their own way Everyone's a hero in their...” - Joss Whedon

15. “Living by faith includes the call to something greater than cowardly self-preservation.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

16. “Vanye: You're asking me to kill you.Luthiel: I'm asking you to save her. ” - Robert Fanney

17. “Luthiel: I cannot change what will happen. I can only change how I act in the face of it.” - Robert Fanney

18. “Become major, Paul. Live like a hero. That's what the classics teach us. Be a main character. Otherwise what is life for?” - J.M. Coetzee

19. “I asked my Greek chorus about this sort of hero: the Underappreciated Personification of Resolve.” - Brad Herzog

20. “If, as has been postulated before, heroism happens when courage meets circumstance, what if the circumstances are mundane?” - Brad Herzog

21. “Perhaps elements like tenacity and humility combine to form a heroic compound.” - Brad Herzog

22. “When he endures nothing but endless miseries-- What pleasure is there in living the day after day, Edging slowly back and forth toward death?Anyone who warms their heart with the glow Of flickering hope is worth nothing at all. The noble man should either live with honor or die with honor. That's all there is to be said.” - Sophocles

23. “As I see it, part of the art of being a hero is knowing when you don't need to be one anymore.” - Alan Moore

24. “Being terrified but going ahead and doing what must be done—that's courage. The one who feels no fear is a fool, and the one who lets fear rule him is a coward.” - Piers Anthony

25. “Rostov kept thinking about that brilliant feat of his, which, to his surprise, had gained him the St. George Cross and even given him the reputation of a brave man - and there was something in it that he was unable to understand. "So they're even more afraid than we are!" he thought. "So that's all there is to so-called heroism? And did I really do it for the fatherland? And what harm had he done, with his dimple and his light blue eyes? But how frightened he was! He thought I'd kill him. Why should I kill him? My hand faltered. And they gave me the St. George Cross. I understand nothing, nothing!” - Leo Tolstoy

26. “He found that it was easy to make a heroic gesture, but hard to abide by its results.” - W. Somerset Maugham

27. “I'm a fucking coward.""Maybe." Craw jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Whirrun's corpse. "There's a hero. Tell me who's better off.” - Joe Abercrombie

28. “Those novels with old-fashioned heroes and heroines in them -- are ruinous!” - William Dean Howells

29. “There's no shame in fear. But understand this - the coward is ruled by fear, while the hero rides it like a wild stallion.” - David Gemmell

30. “I come in a world of iron...to make a world of gold” - Dale Wasserman

31. “Launching a turnaround takes courage. I cannot measure that and so it is not going to be included in my analysis, but behind the moments of change there are always a few people within these societies who have decided to try to make a difference.” - Paul Collier

32. “To be heroic is to be courageous enough to die for something; to be inspirational is to be crazy enough to live a little.” - Criss Jami

33. “The truth is that the heroism of your childhood entertainments was not true valor. It was theatre. The grand gesture, the moment of choice, the mortal danger, the external foe, the climactic battle whose outcome resolves all--all designed to appear heroic, to excite and gratify and audience. Gentlemen, welcome to the world of reality--there is no audience. No one to applaud, to admire. No one to see you. Do you understand? Here is the truth--actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one. No one queues up to see it. No one is interested.” - David Foster Wallace

34. “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

35. “There are so many unsung heroines and heroes at this broken moment in our collective story, so many courageous persons who, unbeknownst to themselves, are holding together the world by their resolute love or contagious joy. Although I do not know your names, I can feel you out there.” - David Abram

36. “In short, heroism means doing the right thing regardless of the consequences.” - Brandon Mull

37. “To be a true hero you must be a true Christian. To sum up then, heroism is largely based on two qualities- truthfulness and unselfishness, a readiness to put one's own pleasures aside for that of others, to be courteous to all, kind to those younger than yourself, helpful to your parents, even if helpfulness demands some slight sacrifice of your own pleasure. . .you must remember that these two qualities are the signs of Christian heroism.” - G. A. Henty

38. “Hate did not give way to heroism.” - Evan Meekins

39. “In my opinion, actual heroism, like actual love, is a messy, painful, vulnerable business—and I wanted to try to reflect that.” - John Green

40. “Two ideas are opposed — not concepts or abstractions, but Ideas which were in the blood of men before they were formulated by the minds of men. The Resurgence of Authority stands opposed to the Rule of Money; Order to Social Chaos, Hierarchy to Equality, socio-economico-political Stability to constant Flux; glad assumption of Duties to whining for Rights; Socialism to Capitalism, ethically, economically, politically; the Rebirth of Religion to Materialism; Fertility to Sterility; the spirit of Heroism to the spirit of Trade; the principle of Responsibility to Parliamentarism; the idea of Polarity of Man and Woman to Feminism; the idea of the individual task to the ideal of ‘happiness’; Discipline to Propaganda-compulsion; the higher unities of family, society, State to social atomism; Marriage to the Communistic ideal of free love; economic self-sufficiency to senseless trade as an end in itself; the inner imperative to Rationalism.” - Francis Parker Yockey

41. “Not every flying hero has a cape.” - Michael Jordan

42. “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

43. “To go where no one else has ever gone before is the secret of heroism.” - Dejan Stojanovic

44. “From this Legionary school a new man will have to emerge, a man with heroic qualities; a giant of our history to do battle and win over all the enemies of our Fatherland, his battle and victory having to extend even beyond the material world into the realm of invisible enemies, the powers of evil. Everything that our mind can imagine as more beautiful spiritually; everything the proudest that our race can produce, greater, more just, more powerful, wiser, purer, more diligent and more heroic, this is what the Legionary school must give us! A man in whom all the possibilities of human grandeur that are implanted by God in the blood of our people be developed to the maximum. This hero, the product of Legionary education, will also know how to elaborate programs; will also know how to solve the Jewish problem; will also know how to organize the state well; will also know how to convince other Romanians; and if not, he will know how to win, for that is why he is a hero. This hero, this Legionary of bravery, labour, and justice, with the powers God implanted in his soul, will lead our Fatherland on the road of its glory.” - Corneliu Zelea Codreanu

45. “Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes” - Bertolt Brecht

46. “I am not a hero. Life has not required it of me.” - Geraldine Brooks

47. “For a Hero cannot triumph all the time. Sometimes he will be defeated, and how he faces that defeat is a test of his character.” - Cressida Cowell

48. “Duty comes in many forms; at times duty to country may conflict with duty to family. Yet, with a lucid mind the guises can be torn away and in the end, duty becomes but one, and that duty is to value justice above everything--to do what is right not because someone ordains it, but because the heart which is the seat of truth decrees it so.” - F. Sionil José