79 Heroes' Quotes

In every era and across cultures, heroes have emerged to inspire, challenge, and evoke change. Through their words, these extraordinary individuals provide us with the wisdom, courage, and motivation to face our own struggles. Whether drawn from the annals of history, literature, or modern legends, the words of heroes can ignite a spark within us. Dive into this carefully curated collection of the top 79 heroes' quotes, and let their timeless messages empower and uplift your spirit.

1. “Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale.” - Peter S. Beagle

2. “So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly rise and make them miserable.” - Aldous Huxley

3. “Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They're just braver 5 minutes longer.” - Ronald Reagan

4. “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

5. “In a room wherepeople unanimously maintaina conspiracy of silence,one word of truthsounds like a pistol shot.” - Czesław Miłosz

6. “What we need now are heroes and heroines, about a million of them, one brave deed is worth a thousand books. Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.” - Edward Abbey

7. “The life of the hero of the tale is, at the outset, overshadowed by bitter and hopeless struggles; one doubts that the little swineherd will ever be able to vanquish the awful Dragon with the twelve heads. And yet, ...truth and courage prevail and the youngest and most neglected son of the family, of the nation, of mankind, chops off all twelve heads of the Dragon, to the delight of our anxious hearts. This exultant victory, towards which the hero of the tale always strives, is the hope and trust of the peasantry and of all oppressed peoples. This hope helps them bear the burden of their destiny.” - Gyula Illyes

8. “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

9. “We need not take refuge in supernatural gods to explain our saints and sages and heroes and statesmen, as if to explain our disbelief that mere unaided human beings could be that good or wise.” - Abraham Maslow

10. “He was dirty, his hair unkempt, his clothes stained with blood. Heroes in stories somehow managed to rescue maidens while looking like court dandies. Next time he went adventuring he'd remember to bring a comb.” - J.V. Jones

11. “Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me.” - Fred Rogers

12. “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” - Winston Churchill

13. “You learn eventually that, while there are no villains, there are no heroes either. And until you make the final discovery that there are only human beings, who are therefore all the more fascinating, you are liable to miss something.” - Paul Gallico

14. “Unglücklich das Land, das Helden nötig hat” - Bertolt Brecht

15. “No, what he didn't like about heroes was that they were usually suicidally gloomy when sober and homicidally insane when drunk.” - Terry Pratchett

16. “Perseverance is the act of true role models and heroes.” - Liza Wiemer

17. “All the heroes of tomorrow are the heretics of today.” - Yip Harburg

18. “Every society needs heroes. And every society has them. The reason we don't often see them is because we don't bother to look.There are two kinds of heroes. Heroes who shine in the face of great adversity, who perform an amazing feat in a difficult situation. And heroes who live among us, who do their work unceremoniously, unnoticed by many of us, but who make a difference in the lives of others.Heroes are selfless people who perform extraordinary acts. The mark of heroes is not necessarily the result of their action, but what they are willing to do for others and for their chosen cause. Even if they fail, their determination lives on for others to follow. The glory lies not in the achievement, but in the sacrifice.” - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

19. “What? A great man? I only ever see the ape of his own ideal.” - Nietzsche, Friedrich

20. “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

21. “On the late afternoon streets, everyone hurries along, going about their own business.Who is the person walking in front of you on the rain-drenched sidewalk?He is covered with an umbrella, and all you can see is a dark coat and the shoes striking the puddles.And yet this person is the hero of his own life story.He is the love of someone’s life.And what he can do may change the world.Imagine being him for a moment.And then continue on your own way.” - Vera Nazarian

22. “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

23. “Heroes in fact die with one's youth. They are pinned like butterflies to the setting board of early memories—the time when skies were always blue, the sun shone and the air was filled with the sounds and scents of grass being cut. I find myself still as desperate to read the Sussex score in the stop-press as ever I was; but I no longer worship heroes, beings for whom the ordinary scales of human values are inadequate. One learns that as one grows up, so do the gods grow down. It is in many ways a pity: for one had thought that heroes had no problems of their own. Now one knows different!” - Alan Ross

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

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

26. “One’s options in this world are as vast as the horizon, which is technically a circle and thus infinitely broad. Yet we must choose each step we take with utmost caution, for the footprints we leave behind are as important as the path we will follow. They’re part of the same journey — our story.” - Lori R. Lopez

27. “Dalek: I will talk to the Doctor.The Doctor: Oh will you? That's nice. Hello!Dalek: The Dalek strategem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene.The Doctor: Oh really? Why's that, then?Dalek: We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated. The Doctor: No.Dalek: Explain yourself.The Doctor: I said, "No."Dalek: What is the meaning of this negative?The Doctor: It means, "No."Dalek: But she will be destroyed!The Doctor: No! 'Cause this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna rescue her. I'm gonna save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet, and then I'm gonna save the Earth. And then—just to finish off—I'm gonna wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!Dalek: But you have no weapons, no defenses, no plan.The Doctor: Yeah! And doesn't that scare you to death? Rose?Rose: Yes, Doctor?The Doctor: I'm coming to get you.” - Russell T. Davies

28. “Do not be so ridiculous, I can more easily find you someone else.” Gripping the bars of his prison so strongly that the bones of his knuckles showed prominently through his pale skin, the monster growled again, “I will have no other.” Nearing the end of his patience, Klaus demanded, “Why? Why are you being so impossible?” Turning to the diminutive creature beneath the blanket, he smiled nastily, his light red eyes gleaming, “Because he wants her.” - Gwenn Wright

29. “My own heroes are the dreamers, those men and women who tried to make the world a better place than when they found it, whether in small ways or great ones. Some succeeded, some failed, most had mixed results... but it is the effort that's heroic, as I see it. Win or lose, I admire those who fight the good fight.” - George R.R. Martin

30. “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

31. “Think of all the stories you've heard, Bast. You have a young boy, the hero. His parents are killed he sets out for vengeance. What next?"Bast hesitated, his expression puzzled. Chronicler answered the question instead. "He finds help. A clever talking squirrel. An old drunken swordsman. A mad hermit in the woods. That sort of thing."Kvothe nodded. "Exactly! He finds the mad hermit in the woods, proves himself worthy, and learns the names of all things, just like Taborlin the Great. Then with these powerful magics at his beck and call, what does he do?"Chronicler shrugged. "He finds the villains and kills them." "Of course," Kvothe said grandly. "Clean, quick, and easy as lying. We know how it ends practically before it starts. That's why stories appeal to us. They give us the clarity and simplicity our real lives lack.” - Patrick Rothfuss

32. “You don't look so much like a great hero,' Jarrah said. 'I'm pretty sure I'm not,' Mack said wearily. 'My throat is hoarse from screaming in terror. I don't think heroes have that problem.” - Michael Grant

33. “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

34. “Los traidores de hoy pueden ser los héroes del mañana, y viceversa; sobre todo si toman el poder.” - Juan Miguel Zunzunegui

35. “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 Zimbardo

36. “Only in death will we have our own names since only in death are we no longer part of the effort. In death we become heroes.” - Chuck Palahniuk

37. “You don't raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes.” - Walter M. Schirra, Sr.

38. “Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with.” - Brodi Ashton

39. “Heroes don't exist. And if they did, I wouldn't be one of them.” - Brodi Ashton

40. “On the second floor was the office in which Houston pounded an ancient typewriter with two fingers, always setting an example of unceasing hard work for his admiring students. They had no hint of the fact that their hard-driving dean had contracted tuberculosis while serving as a GI in France in Word War I. Houstan always seemed vibrant and impassioned in the chase for justice as he tried to expose his students to everything relating to the law that might give them an advantage.. . ."I never worked hard until I got to the Howard Law School and met Charlie Houston," Marshal told me. "I saw this man's dedication, his vision, his willingness to sacrifice, and I told myself, 'You either shape up or ship out.' When you are being challenged by a great human being, you know that you can't ship out."So Houston rescued Marshall and launched him into a career as one of the greatest lawyers in American history.” - Carl T. Rowan

41. “The Bible just said ‘Thou shalt not kill’, then told hundreds of stories of people killing each other and becoming heroes, like David with Goliath.” - John Marsden

42. “Anyway, if you need your heroes to be perfect, you won't have very many. Even Superman had his Kryptonite. I'd rather have my heroes be more like me: trying to do the right thing, sometimes messing up. Making mistakes. Saying you're sorry. And forgiving other people when they mess up, too.” - Madeleine George

43. “I'm just a kid, Chiron," I said miserably. "What good is one lousy hero against something like Kronos?"Chiron managed a smile. '"What good is one lousy hero'? Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain said something like that to me once, just before he single-handedly changed the course of your Civil War.” - Rick Riordan

44. “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

45. “There is power within great sacrifice, within noble deeds. There are moments... brief, shining moments when the impossible becomes possible.” - Kelly Keaton

46. “A society manufactures the heroes it requires.” - COLSON WHITEHEAD

47. “War is not a means but an end. It makes violence respectable and makes sadists look like heroes.” - Mary Horlock

48. “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

49. “Of course not. No one is chosen. Not ever. Not in the real world. You chose to climb out of your window and ride on a leopard. You chose to get a witch’s Spoon back, and to make friends with a wyvern. You chose to trade your shadow for a child’s life. You chose not to let the Marquess hurt your friend--you chose to smash her cages! You chose to face your own Death, not to balk at a great sea to cross and no ship to cross it in. And twice now you have chosen not to go home when you might have, if only you abandoned your friends. You are not the chosen one, September. Fairyland did not choose you--you chose yourself. You could have had a lovely holiday in Fairyland and never met the Marquess, never worried yourself with local politics, had a romp with a few brownies and gone home with enough memories for a lifetime’s worth of novels. But you didn’t. You chose. You chose it all. Just like you chose your path on the beach: to lose your heart is not a path for the faint and fainting.” - Catherynne M. Valente

50. “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

51. “What I knew for sure was that he had a quick temper, a cocky attitude, and a southern accent... Apparently he also has a pet cougar.” - Stacy Mantle

52. “ "Crazy," he muttered softly, "how much I need you."Crazy, how something like that can feel like a kick in the chest, can hurt that much, can suck all the air right out of your body for a moment. And at the same time, settle over you, around you, so soft and warm and sweet, that you think nothing can ever be as good as this one moment.Crazy.That I can love you.This much.” - Susan Bischoff

53. “Bleeding from the ear. Oh Jesus, God. That was on the list for not applying pressure. But what did that mean? I couldn't remember. Couldn't think."Is he okay?""You dropped a two-hundred pound log on his head!" I screamed at Nathan. The air shuddered around us; the building itself seeming to tremble."I didn't mean-""Shut up, man," Marco said, swatting at Nathan's arm. "Joss, you need to calm the fuck down.""Calm down? Calm down?!" Energy pulsed around us, hot, thick, pricking at my eyes. Above, lights flickered, dimmed. A bulb shattered somewhere, and glass came tinkling down.” - Susan Bischoff

54. “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

55. “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

56. “I stressed that I did not want to be treated like a hero. I was only one member of the revolutionary masses who had fulfilled his duty towards his country. It was easy to write, rant, and mobilize people using the internet. The real heroes of this revolution were the people who had died and been injured.” - Wael Ghonim

57. “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

58. “Everybody wanted to be the hero of their own story. Nobody wanted to be comic relief.” - Lev Grossman

59. “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

60. “Well, the ancients might not have been very heroic. Most of them were probably like Mother, crouched somewhere trying to work out how to make fake jawbone jewelry that would look like the real thing.” - Barbara Kingsolver

61. “One trained dog equals 60 search-and-rescue workers.” - Charles Stoehr

62. “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

63. “We are really so prejudiced by our educations, that, as the ancients deified their heroes, we deify their madmen.” - Philip Dormer Stanhope

64. “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

65. “The man is a monster. The worst I have ever seen, in fact, since I last looked in the mirror. The truth? I am rotting too. I am buried alive, and already rotting. If I was not such a coward I would kill myself, but I am, and so I must content myself with killing others in the hope that one day, if I can only wade deep enough in blood, I will come out clean.” - Joe Abercrombie

66. “A hero is defined by what he or she can do, not by what he or she cannot do.” - Damon Throop

67. “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

68. “We don't need wings to be angelsWe don't need reasons to be rightYour love makes us all betterThat who we really areAngels and heroes at heart” - Brian Littrell

69. “I have been so very, very fortunate in my life. I've met or been in contact with several of my childhood heroes. I've interacted with people all over this planet, and even though I couldn't possibly hope to remember all their names, I remember a photograph, a poem, a sound, a joke, kind words of encouragement. All is not lost.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman

70. “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

71. “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

72. “Thats what happens to Snow in Texas, lady. It freaking MELTS!!" Leo Valdez- The Lost Hero” - Rick Riordan

73. “Most have been forgotten. Most deserve to be forgotten. The heroes will always be remembered. The best. The best and the worst. And a few who were a bit of both.” - George R.R. Martin

74. “I do believe that some humans have more amazing lives than others–above all, those who don’t sit down in a chair like mere spectators letting their lives happen in front of them, but they take risks as heroes do, experiencing, living, becoming the main character—but no matter what, we all have at least one story to tell.” - Merce Cardus

75. “So at the end of the day, here was what Mike was able to believe in: people.It was people and their kindness the made him feel blessed. It was people who were the heroes, and people who were generous, and people who comforted one another.” - Kaya McLaren

76. “I know who the real hero is, and it isn't me or brave Lanaya. It's an old man with a white beard and a walking stick and a heart so big it won't let him stop thinking he can change the world by writing down things in a book no one will ever read.” - Rodman Philbrick

77. “I think children want to believe that they can be heroes too.” - Eleonore Caron

78. “He did what heroes do after their work is accomplished; he died.” - Leo Tolstoy

79. “Heroes make us smile because they not only rescue us outwardly, but inwardly too.” - Richelle E. Goodrich