Famous quotes containing the word heroism:
“The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove ones self a fool; the truest heroism is to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when to be obeyed.”
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (18041864)
“Dandyism is the last flicker of heroism in decadent ages.... Dandyism is a setting sun; like the declining star, it is magnificent, without heat and full of melancholy. But alas! the rising tide of democracy, which spreads everywhere and reduces everything to the same level, is daily carrying away these last champions of human pride, and submerging, in the waters of oblivion, the last traces of these remarkable myrmidons.”
—Charles Baudelaire (18211867)
“The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove ones self a fool; the truest heroism is to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when to be obeyed.”
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (18041864)