Courtesy is a silver lining around the dark clouds of civilization; it is the best part of refinement and in many ways, an art of heroic beauty in the vast gallery of man's cruelty and baseness. Bryant H.McGill
Heroes need monsters to establish their heroic credentials. You need something scary to overcome. Margaret Atwood
Heroic people take risks to themselves to help others. There's nothing heroic about accepting $5 million to go out and run around chasing a ball, although you may show fortitude or those other qualities while you do it. Gregg Easterbrook
I admire people who re-create themselves. And it seems to me that what gives us all the opportunity to be heroic in our own lives is that we work to heal ourselves and be better than we were yesterday. Robert Crais
My fiction is almost always inspired by a character's need or desire to rise above him- or herself. No one is perfect and some of us have much adversity in our lives; it is those people who struggle to rise above their nature or background that I find the most interesting and heroic. Robert Crais
One of the rules I try to follow is that normal people are going to be involved even in heroic events. David Brin
Some people might say my coming out after just winning the MVP award is heroic, and I understand that. Sheryl Swoopes
There are people who can do all fine and heroic things but one - keep from telling their happiness to the unhappy. Mark Twain
We don't tend to write about disease in fiction - not just teen novels but all American novels - because it doesn't fit in with our idea of the heroic romantic epic. There is room only for sacrifice, heroism, war, politics and family struggle. John Green
When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness. Joseph Campbell