28 Powerful Hero Quotes — For The Everyday Heroes In Your Life and For The Hero Inside You

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Excerpt: Not all heroes wear capes. In fact, almost no heroes in the real world wear capes. This list of 28 powerful hero quotes is for them (and you).

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Introduction: Heroes are but ordinary people who feel fear, but choose to face it anyway.

In fact, the more you hide from your life challenges and fears, the more they will grow and the more you will shrink. It’s not a single negative, it’s a double negative. If you’ve ever felt your mind take something fearful or challenging from a level 1 intensity to a level 1000 intensity, just from letting it linger in your mind, then you know what I’m talking about. And if you’ve ever let the muscles of your body go without the challenge and difficulty of exercise, then you know what it feels like to shrink. The muscles of the mind—the mental capacity to show courage and face fear—are muscles that none-the-less need to be exercised to grow.

The moment you step forward to confront your life challenges and fears, is the moment that they begin to shrink and you begin to grow.  It’s not a single positive, it’s a double positive.  If you’ve ever reflected on the feeling of having confronted a fear, and felt your fears shift from being an anxiety of the future to a memory of the past, then you know what I’m talking about.  And if you’ve ever left a workout session feeling the euphoric pump and vitality of your muscles, then you know what it feels like to grow strength.

When it comes to doing nothing, like exercise, doing nothing counts for less than nothing—it counts for negative.  When you don’t exercise, you don’t MAINTAIN your current level of fitness, you REGRESS (unless you’re actively recovering).  The same is true when you do NOTHING about the fears and difficulties in your life.  And to be clear, doing nothing includes building mental walls, numbing yourself down, denying their existence, drowning yourself in media, avoiding key people, blaming things outside of your control, etc.  And let’s not forget, whenever we’re over here doing nothing, our fears are over there getting fed with time and are growing from our ignorance—they are the weeds of our mind.

Let’s not make things harder than they have to be, though.  Facing fears doesn’t have to be a colossal act that results in complete life transformation.  Facing fears is simply that—facing away from the corner that you’re hiding in and FACING them.  Facing fears might also involve standing up tall and looking at them dead in the eye.  Or maybe taking one step forward and holding your ground.  Or maybe bravely speaking what’s on your mind without apology or hesitation.  Or maybe writing down what troubles you without censorship or illusion.  Facing fears is a series of small, courageous acts taken one act at a time—nothing less and it certainly doesn’t have to be anything more.

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Not All Heroes Wear Capes

In fact, almost no heroes in the real world wear capes. Heroes, instead, wear their brave faces when looking at adversity. Heroes put on their confident pants when they know they’re going to take stand. Heroes feel the fear inside, knowing that there is trouble ahead, and choose to use their courageous voice to speak out anyway. These heroes transcend even the most inspiring, fictional characters we see in movies. These are the heroes who work tirelessly to ensure that when you turn the movie off, you reenter a world you don’t have to soon escape from again.

This list of Hero quotes is a dedication to them. To the people who choose to stand up for what they believe in. To the people who speak out against that which is wrong. To the people who risk their lives to save—or even just help improve—the lives of others. To the people who provide services for others that they couldn’t live without. To the people who are nurturing and helping develop the minds of the next generation. To the people who are taking actions—big and small—every day, to make the world a better place for us all. And to you—to the person reading this who can be as much a hero as anybody else in this world. Thank you. May you continue to find the strength and courage you need to keep fighting the good fight and may luck always be on your side.

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The List (Part 1): 14 Powerful Hero Quotes for The Heroes In Your Life:

“To be heroic does not have to mean possessing the ability to stand against the evils of the world, either well or successfully, but just that one is willing to stand.”

Mike Alsford

“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

“I think a hero is any person really intent on making this a better place for all people.”

Maya Angelou

“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.”

Christopher Reeve

“Heroes aren’t heroes because they worship the light, but because they know the darkness all too well to stand down and live with it.”

Ninya Tippett

“Heroes are made in the hour of defeat. Success is, therefore, well described as a series of glorious defeats.”

Mahatma Gandhi

“Courage doesn’t always involve physical heroism in the face of death. It doesn’t always require giant leaps worthy of celebration. Sometimes, courage is the willingness to speak the truth about what you see and to own what you say.”

Seth Godin, The Icarus Deception

“Heroes don’t have the need to be known as heroes, they just do what heroes do because it is right and it must be done.”

Shannon A. Thompson

“Real heroes are men who fall and fail and are flawed, but win out in the end because they’ve stayed true to their ideals and beliefs and commitments.”

Kevin Costner

“Nothing is given to man on earth – struggle is built into the nature of life, and conflict is possible – the hero is the man who lets no obstacle prevent him from pursuing the values he has chosen.”

Andrew Bernstein

“To be heroic may mean nothing more than this then, to stand in the face of the status quo, in the face of an easy collapse into the madness of an increasingly chaotic world and represent another way.”

Mike Alsford

“The prudent see only the difficulties, the bold only the advantages, of a great enterprise; the hero sees both; diminishes the former and makes the latter preponderate, and so conquers.”

Johann Kaspar Lavater

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

Nelson Mandela

“How do I define a hero?  A hero is a person who courageously contributes under even the most trying circumstances; a hero is an individual who acts unselfishly and who demands more from himself or herself than others would expect; a hero is a man or woman who defies adversity by doing what he or she believes is right in spite of fear.  A hero moves beyond the ‘common sense’ of the promoters of the status quo.  A hero is anyone who aims to contribute, anyone who is willing to set an example, anyone who lives by the truth of his or her convictions.  A hero develops strategies to assure his outcome, and persists until it becomes a reality, changing his approach as necessary and understanding the importance of small actions consistently taken.  A hero is not someone who is ‘perfect,’ because none of us are perfect.  We all make mistakes, but that doesn’t invalidate the contributions we make in the course of our lives.  Perfection is not heroism; humanity is.”

Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 491)

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The List (Part 2): 14 Powerful Hero Quotes For The Hero Inside You

“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it.”

Tagore

“Heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with.”

Brodi Ashton

“Being afraid of things going wrong isn’t the way to make things go right.”

Unknown

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.  The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”

Helen Keller

“I believe that you and I – and everyone we’ll ever meet – has the inborn capacity to be heroic, to take daring, courageous, and noble steps to make life better for others, even when in the short term it seems to be at our own expense. The capacity to do the right thing, to dare to take a stand and make a difference, is within you now.”

Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within (Page 489)

“Being brave doesn’t mean that you aren’t scared. Being brave means that you are scared, really scared, badly scared, and you do the right thing anyway.”

Neil Gaiman, Caroline

“The closer one gets to being motivated by altruism, the more fearless one becomes in the face of even extremely anxiety-provoking circumstances.”

Dalai Lama, The Art of Happiness

“You have to be brave with your life so that others can be brave with theirs.”

Katherine Center, The Gifts of Imperfection

“The greatest fear in the world is of the opinion of others. And the moment you are unafraid of the crowd you are no longer a sheep, you become a lion. A great roar arises in your heart, the roar of freedom.”

Osho

“Are you paralyzed with fear?  That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember our rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.”

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”

Dale Carnegie

“And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

“When things get tough or uncomfortable, we tell ourselves: it’s OK to quit, it doesn’t matter, we’ll do it next time, we’re not disciplined enough, we suck at this, we can’t do it, it’s too hard, it would be nice to take a break, life is too short to struggle, we deserve a reward, just this once won’t matter, we’re going to fail, it’s better to fail quietly, we just don’t feel like it right now, let’s not think about this, hey a squirrel!  So what can we do if our story is working against us?  Change the damn story. Create a song to sing about yourself at the epic hero of your dreams. Sing this song daily, and be proud of it. Go after the dream, fight the forces of distraction and dullness and self-doubt, rise up to be your best self. You are the writer of your story, the composer of your song, and every moment is a chance to rewrite it, a new draft ready to be crafted into something better.”

Leo Babauta, Blog

“This world is your best teacher. There is a lesson in everything. There is a lesson in each experience. Learn it and become wise. Every failure is a stepping stone to success. Every difficulty or disappointment is a trial of your faith. Every unpleasant incident or temptation is a test of your inner strength. Therefore nil desperandum. March forward hero!”

Swami Sivananda

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