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Sporting Hero Quotes

Here are a selection of quotes about heroes, though not all of the sporting variety. A hero can also come from other areas of society, and probably should do so more often.



"The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example"
Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister

"A hero is a man who is afraid to run away."
English proverb

"Tell me your heroes and I'll tell you how your life will end up"
Warren Buffet, U.S. investor, businessman, and philanthropist

"The hero shows us what we ought to be, and we make him a hero because we wish to be what he is"
Richard C. Crepeau, Sport, Heroes and Myth, Journal of Sport & Social Issues, Vol. 5, No. 1, 23-31 (1981)

"The world needs heroes and it's better they be harmless men like me than villains like Hitler"
Albert Einstein, scientist winning hero

"Find out what your hero or heroine wants, and when he or she wakes up in the morning, just follow him or her all day"
Ray Bradbury, author

"The hero was distinguished by his achievement; the celebrity by his image or trademark. The hero created himself; the celebrity is created by the media. The hero was a big man; the celebrity is a big name."
Daniel J. Boorstin

"To have no heroes is to have no aspiration, to live on the momentum of the past, to be thrown back upon routine, sensuality, and the narrow self.
Charles Horton Cooley

"Kids today are looking for idols, but sometimes they look too far ... They don't have to look any farther than their home because those are the people that love you. They are the real heroes. "
Bobby Bonilla

"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself"
Joseph Campbell

"True heroism consists in being superior to the ills of life, in whatever shape they may challenge us to combat."
Napoleon Bonaparte

"You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things - to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals."
Sir Edmund Hillary, Mountaineer and Explorer

"How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!" 
Maya Angelou

"The hero is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men"
Henry David Thoreau

"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles."
Christopher Reeve, Actor and Speaker

"In our world of big names, our true heroes tend to be anonymous. In this life of illusion and quasi-illusion, the person of solid virtues who can be admired for something more substantial than his well-knowness often proves to be the unsung hero: the teacher, the nurse, the mother, the honest cop, the hard worker at lonely, underpaid, unglamorous, unpublicized jobs."
Daniel J. Boorstin

"A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else" 
Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyper Reality, 1986

"The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by"
Felix Adler

"What you call a hero, I call just doing my job"
Author Unknown

"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others, at whatever cost."
Arthur Ashe

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

"We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too."
Helen Hayes

"One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being."
May Sarton

"Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story."
John Barth

"The great destroyers of nations and men are comfort, plenty and security. A coward gets scared and quits. A hero gets scared, but still goes on."
Source Unknown

"The idol of today pushes the hero of yesterday out of our recollection; and will, in turn, be supplanted by his successor of tomorrow."
Washington Irving

"My heroes are and were my parents. I can't see having anyone else as my heroes."
Michael Jordan

"Heroes are created by popular demand, sometimes out of the scantiest materials."
Gerald W. Johnson

"Celebrity-worship and hero-worship should not be confused. Yet we confuse them every day, and by doing so we come dangerously close to depriving ourselves of all real models. We lose sight of the men and women who do not simply seem great because they are famous but are famous because they are great. We come closer and closer to degrading all fame into notoriety."
Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image, ch. 2, From Hero to Celebrity: The Human Pseudo-event, 1961

"A hero is someone we can admire without apology."
Kitty Kelley

"One brave deed makes no hero."
John Greenleaf Whittier

"One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being."
May Sarton

"Being a hero is about the shortest lived profession on earth."
Will Rogers

"The fame of heroes owes little to the extent of their conquests and all to the success of the tributes paid to them.
Jean Genet

"Aspire rather to be a hero than merely appear one."
Baltasar Gracian

A boy doesn't have to go to war to be a hero; he can say he doesn't like pie when he sees there isn't enough to go around.
Edward W. Howe

"Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards."
Jean Jacques Rousseau

"Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves."
Carol Pearson



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Heroes Extra

Read our discussion about what makes a hero. See our Super Hero list and Heroines, and don't forget our Anti-Heroes.

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