Heroes are created by popular demand, sometimes out of the scantiest materials.

Heroes are created by popular demand, sometimes out of the scantiest materials.

Listen, my friend, there are two races of beings. The masses teeming and happy -- common clay, if you like read more

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.

What with making their way and enjoying what they have won, heroes have no time to think. But the sons read more

What with making their way and enjoying what they have won, heroes have no time to think. But the sons of heroes -- ah, they have all the necessary leisure.

You lived too long, we have supped full with heroes, they waste their deaths on us.

You lived too long, we have supped full with heroes, they waste their deaths on us.

We can't all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by.

We can't all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by.

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.

The more characteristic American hero in the earlier day, and the more beloved type at all times, was not the read more

The more characteristic American hero in the earlier day, and the more beloved type at all times, was not the hustler but the whittler.

We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.

We can't all be heroes because somebody has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.

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.