heroism

A static hero is a public liability. Progress grows out of motion.

In the hands of the discoverer, medicine becomes a heroic art . . wherever life is dear he is a demigod.

Self trust is the essence of heroism.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.

Every hero becomes a bore at last.

The characteristic of genuine heroism is 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.

Heroism feels and never reasons, and therefore is always right.

Beauty is the mark God sets on virtue. Every natural action is graceful; every heroic act is also decent, and causes the place and the bystanders to shine.

In private places, among sordid objects, an act of truth or heroism seems at once to draw to itself the sky as its temple, the sun as its cradle. Nature stretches out her arms to embrace man, only let his thoughts be of equal greatness.

Every man is a hero and an oracle to somebody, and to that person whatever he says has an enhanced value.