heroism

I know that my buddy Jorgeson was a real American hero. I wish that he had lived to be something else, if not a painter of pictures then even some kind of fuckup with a factory job and four divorces, bankruptcy petitions, in and out of jail. I wish he had been that. I wish he had been anything rather than a real American hero.

Truth is a tyrant-the only tyrant to whom we can give our allegiance. The service of truth is a matter of heroism.

A Hero: A Moment When You__e Bigger Than Yourself.

Of what avail are my loftiest thoughts if I have ceased to exist?_ there are some will ask; to whom others, it may be, will answer, __hat becomes of myself if all that I love in my heart and my spirit must die, that my life may be saved?_ And are not almost all the morals, and heroism, and virtue of man summed up in that single choice?

After September 11th, I never much liked the trend of everyone and his brother wearing the hats and jackets of the NYPD and FDNY. Only the people who do the job should get to wear the hat. Would you wear someone else's Medal of Honor? Yes, it's a tribute, and sincere tribute is always appropriate for these brave people. But wearing their symbols is also rubbing off a piece of heroism that isn't yours.

Never give up hope, no matter how dark things may seem.

I was not heroic enough to purchase liberty at the price of caste.

I'm not going to lie: there are no good options here.

Heroes don__ have the need to be known as heroes, they just do what heroes do because it is right and it must be done.

A hero is a person who, without a second thought, simply does the right thing because his conscience cannot live with any other choice.

The thing about a hero, is even when it doesn't look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to keep digging, he's going to keep trying to do right and make up for what's gone before, just because that's who he is.

And my chest swells with an emotion I'm not familiar with . . . happiness? Pride? I'm not sure what it is, but I suddenly feel compelled to do things that will make me feel this way all the time, which gives me pause, since that seems dangerous too.

Sometimes, before you make any plans or resolutions, before you declare your heroic intent to persevere, you just have to cry.

Duty comes in many forms; at times duty to country may conflict with duty to family. Yet, with a lucid mind the guises can be torn away and in the end, duty becomes but one, and that duty is to value justice above everything--to do what is right not because someone ordains it, but because the heart which is the seat of truth decrees it so.

For a Hero cannot triumph all the time. Sometimes he will be defeated, and how he faces that defeat is a test of his character.

We are like a bunch of dogs squirting on fire hydrants. We poison the groundwater with our toxic piss, marking everything MINE in a ridiculous attempt to survive our deaths. I can't stop pissing on fire hydrants...I am an animal like any other. Hazel is different. she walks lightly, old man. She walks lightly upon the earth. She knows the truth: We're as likely to hurt the universe as we are to help it, and we're not likely to do either.People will say it's sad that she leaves a lesser scar, that fewer remember her, that she was loved deeply but not widely. But it's not sad. It's triumphant. It's heroic. Isn't that the real heroism?The real heroes anyway aren't the people doing things; the real heroes are the people NOTICING things, paying attention.

I guess a little bit hero is enough. A little bit hero is all anyone really needs to be.

I had the good fortune and opportunity to come home and to tell the truth; many soldiers, like Pat Tillman_ did not have that opportunity. The truth of war is not always easy. The truth is always more heroic than the hype.