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.
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Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately read more
Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!
The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when read more
The characteristic of genuine heroism is its persistency. All men have wandering impulses, fits and starts of generosity. But when you have resolved to be great, abide by yourself, and do not try to reconcile yourself with the world. The heroic cannot be common, nor the common heroic.
What is our task? To make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in.
What is our task? To make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in.
The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because read more
The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper
It's true that heroes are inspiring, but mustn't they also do some rescuing if they are to be worthy of read more
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?
..one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful read more
..one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought
No heroine can create a hero through love of one, but she can give birth to one.
No heroine can create a hero through love of one, but she can give birth to one.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Every hero becomes a bore at last.
Every hero becomes a bore at last.
