"Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale."
— Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn)

"Unconsciously we all have a standard by which we measure other men, and if we examine closely we find that this standard is a very simple one, and is this: we admire them, we envy them, for great qualities we ourselves lack. Hero worship consists in just that. Our heroes are men who do things which we recognize, with regret, and sometimes with a secret shame, that we cannot do. We find not much in ourselves to admire, we are always privately wanting to be like somebody else. If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes."
— Mark Twain

"Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They're just braver 5 minutes longer."
— Ronald Reagan

"But I am the real Strider, fortunately. I am Aragorn son of Arathorn; and if by life or death I can save you, I will."
— J.R.R. Tolkien

"No, what he didn't like about heroes was that they were usually suicidally gloomy when sober and homicidally insane when drunk."
— Terry Pratchett (The Color of Magic)

"Have you ever had the feeling you're meant to do something extraordinary?"
— Peter Petrelli

"...the proliferation of luminous fungi or iridescent crystals in deep caves where the torchlessly improvident hero needs to see is one of the most obvious intrusions of narrative causality into the physical universe."
— Terry Pratchett (The Last Continent)

"My lady... I am a hero. It is a trade, no more, like weaving or brewing, and like them is has its own tricks and knacks and small arts. There are ways of perceiving witches, and of knowing poison streams; there are certain weak spots that all dragons have, and certain riddles that hooded strangers tend to set you. But the true secret of being a hero lies in knowing the order of things. The swineherd cannot already be wed to the princess when he embarks on his adventures, nor can the boy knock at the witch's door when she is away on vacation. The wicked uncle cannot be found out and foiled before he has done something wicked. Things must happen when it is time for them to happen. Quests may not simply be abandoned; prophecies may not be left to rot like unpicked fruit; unicorns may go unrescued for a long time, but not forever. The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story... Heroes... Heroes know about order, and happy endings -- heroes know that some things are better than others... You were the one who taught me... I never looked at you without seeing the sweetness of the way the world goes together, or without sorrow for its spoiling. I became a hero to serve you, and all that is like you."
— Peter S. Beagle (The Last Unicorn)

"In a room where
people unanimously maintain
a conspiracy of silence,
one word of truth
sounds like a pistol shot."
— Czesław Miłosz

"We dream of hope, we dream of change, of fire, of love, of death. And then it happens; the dream becomes real, and the answer to this quest, this need to solve life's mysteries finally shows itself like the glowing light of a new dawn. So much struggle for meaning, for purpose. And in the end, we find it only in each other. Our shared experience of the fantastic and the mudane. The simple human need to find a kindred. To connect. And to know in our hearts... that we are not alone "
— Mohinder Suresh from Heroes

"Where does it come from-- this quest, this need to solve life's myteries when the simplest of questions can never be answered? Why are we here? What is the soul? Why do we dream? Perhaps we'd be better off not looking at all. Not delving, not yearning. But that's not human nature. Not the human heart. That is not why we are here. "
— Mohinder Suresh from Heroes

""The noir hero is a knight in blood caked armor. He's dirty and he does his best to deny the fact that he's a hero the whole time.” "
— Frank Miller

"Dalek: I will talk to the Doctor.
The Doctor: Oh will you? That's nice. Hello!
Dalek: The Dalek strategem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene.
The Doctor: Oh really? Why's that, then?
Dalek: We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated.
The Doctor: No.
Dalek: Explain yourself.
The Doctor: I said, "No."
Dalek: What is the meaning of this negative?
The Doctor: It means, "No."
Dalek: But she will be destroyed!
The Doctor: No! 'Cause this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna rescue her. I'm gonna save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet, and then I'm gonna save the Earth. And then—just to finish off—I'm gonna wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!
Dalek: But you have no weapons, no defenses, no plan.
The Doctor: Yeah! And doesn't that scare you to death? Rose?
Rose: Yes, Doctor?
The Doctor: I'm coming to get you.
"
— Russell T. Davies

"You don't have to have superpowers to be a hero"
— Hiro

"I am of certain convinced that the greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel."
— Florence Nightingale

"As long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly rise and make them miserable."
— Aldous Huxley

"Nothing is inevitable the future is not written in stone!"
— Claire Bennet

"This is usually the part when people start screaming.
-Sylar"
— Heroes

"YATTA! I did it! HELLO, NEW YORK!"
— Hiro Nakamura

"On the sixth day, God created man in his own image. Now it's up to us to figure it all out. Right...wrong, good...evil. in each of us is the capacity to decide what drives our actions.so what is it that makes some choose selflessness-- the need to devote one's self to something greater? While others know only self-interest, isolating themselves in a world of their own making. Some seek love even if unrequited. while others are driven by fear... and betrayal. There are those who see their choices as dark proof of God's absence, while others follow a path of noble destiny. But in the end, good, evil; right or wrong, what we choose is never what we really need. For that is the ultimate cosmic joke, the real gift that God has left behind. "
— Sylar from Heroes (Dual)

"Sure, Hiro can stop time, but so can breaking your watch. Only Sylar can get it running again."
— Sylar's Army (Sarmy)

"I am fated to journey hand in hand with my strange heroes and to survey the surging immensity of life, to survey it through the laughter that all can see and through the tears unseen and unknown by anyone."
— Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

"“What makes a hero? Courage, strength, morality, withstanding adversity? Are these the traits that truly show and create a hero? Is the light truly the source of darkness or vice versa? Is the soul a source of hope or despair? Who are these so called heroes and where do they come from? Are their origins in obscurity or in plain sight?” "
— Fyodor Dostoevsky (Notes from Underground: with White Nights, The Dreams of a Ridiculous Man, and selections from The House of the Dead)

"I have a private theory, Sir, that there are no heroes and no monsters in this world. Only children should be allowed to use these words"
— Alfred de Vigny (Stello)

"when you feel like hope is gone, look inside you and be strong and you'll finally see the truth- that hero lies in you."
— Mariah Carey

"And you,
You can be mean
And I,
I'll drink all the time
'Cause we're lovers,
And that is a fact
Yes we're lovers,
And that is that"
— David Bowie

"That is why embittered people find heroes and madmen a perennial source of fascination, for they have no fear of life or death. Both heroes and madmen are indifferent to danger and will forge ahead regardless of what other people say."
— Paulo Coelho (Veronika Decides to Die: A Novel of Redemption)

"You learn eventually that, while there are no villains, there are no heroes either. And until you make the final discovery that there are only human beings, who are therefore all the more fascinating, you are liable to miss something."
— Paul Gallico

"Every society needs heroes. And every society has them. The reason we don't often see them is because we don't bother to look.

There are two kinds of heroes. Heroes who shine in the face of great adversity, who perform an amazing feat in a difficult situation. And heroes who live among us, who do their work unceremoniously, unnoticed by many of us, but who make a difference in the lives of others.

Heroes are selfless people who perform extraordinary acts. The mark of heroes is not necessarily the result of their action, but what they are willing to do for others and for their chosen cause. Even if they fail, their determination lives on for others to follow. The glory lies not in the achievement, but in the sacrifice. "
— Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

""I think you're villain is Angela Petrelli."
"She asked us to find the formula."
"Well. I'm fresh out of ideas."
"I see." *zaps him back into coffin to be buried*
-Hiro and Adam, season 3"
— Tom Kring

"Every generation throws a hero up the pop charts."
— Paul Simon (The Definitive Paul Simon Songbook)

"The life of the hero of the tale is, at the outset, overshadowed by bitter and hopeless struggles; one doubts that the little swineherd will ever be able to vanquish the awful Dragon with the twelve heads. And yet, ...truth and courage prevail and the youngest and most neglected son of the family, of the nation, of mankind, chops off all twelve heads of the Dragon, to the delight of our anxious hearts. This exultant victory, towards which the hero of the tale always strives, is the hope and trust of the peasantry and of all oppressed peoples. This hope helps them bear the burden of their destiny."
— Gyula Illyés (Once Upon a Time: Forty Hungarian Folk-Tales)

""Think of all the stories you've heard, Bast. You have a young boy, the hero. His parents are killed he sets out for vengeance. What next?"

Bast hesitated, his expression puzzled. Chronicler answered the question instead. "He finds help. A clever talking squirrel. An old drunken swordsman. A mad hermit in the woods. That sort of thing."

Kvothe nodded. "Exactly! He finds the mad hermit in the woods, proves himself worthy, and learns the names of all things, just like Taborlin the Great. Then with these powerful magics at his beck and call, what does he do?"

Chronicler shrugged. "He finds the villains and kills them."

"Of course," Kvothe said grandly. "Clean, quick, and easy as lying. We know how it ends practically before it starts. That's why stories appeal to us. They give is the clarity and simplicity our real lives lack." "
— Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind)

"We are all ordinary. We are all boring. We are all spectacular. We are all shy. We are all bold. We are all heroes. We are all helpless. It just depends on the day."
— Brad Meltzer

"Heroes may not be braver than everyone else. They're just braver for five minutes longer."
— Ronald Reagan (Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches)

"A perfect Earth doesn't need a Superman."
— Superman

""He was gonna shoot you in the head, I mean I could have just let him."

"And I let you live, which is kind of a big deal for me!"

- Luke Campbell, Sylar "
— Sylar

""Everyone dies, well, almost everyone. Papa Petrelli, Mama Bennet, Mr. Muggles... what's your brother's name again? Larry?"

"Lyle."

"Right... he's gonna die too."

"
— Sylar Claire

""The girl; you have to save her."

"What girl?"

"The cheerleader. It's the only way to prevent it."

"Prevent what?"

"Everything. Listen to me. She must live. The painter, Isaac, go to him. He will know. When I call you, you must tell me where we meet. You told me many times how lost you felt before it all started. This is what you've been waiting for. Be the one we need.

"Wait!"

"Save the cheerleader, save the world."
"
— Future Hiro Peter

"I think I tend to be drawn to, a lot of the stories have really strong family elements. I'm really drawn to that element of it. I think that's one of the biggest hooks of the show for me, is like, what do these powers do to the relationships in everybody's lives? I really feel like the dynamic in the Bennett family is really compelling and really complicated."
— Zachary Quinto