Heroic Leadership Quotes

Nations need heroes, for heroes make the nation believe that the impossible is possible.

But being overborne with numbers, and nobody daring to face about, stretching out his hands to heaven, [Romulus] prayed to Jupiter to stop the army, and not to neglect but maintain the Roman cause, now in extreme danger. The prayer was no sooner made, than shame and respect for their king checked many; the fears of the fugitives changed suddenly into confidence.

Our best presidents have really combined domestic leadership with heroic achievements in foreign affairs or war.

'Henry V' is a great deal more than almost any other hell-bent-for-armor movie that you've seen.

For a thousand years no king in Christendom has shown such greatness or given so high a type of manly virtue.

Humanity needs heroic leadership from those who see all life as precious.

The scripts that I've been getting are of epic proportion. People want me to lead the big armies.

Sinbad is a great character for any actor to be able to play: impulsive, adventurous, passionate, loyal, and brave - a true hero.

'Brigade' is about one man leading his team to save the fabric of reality even as it comes undone.

Rome remained great as long as she had enemies who forced her to unity, vision, and heroism. When she had overcome them all she flourished for a moment and then began to die.

We have no George Pattons anymore. We have no Ulysses S. Grants. We have none of the swashbuckling generals that actually made things happen.

I'm happy to respect authority when it's genuine authority, based on moral or intellectual or even technical superiority. I'm eager to follow a hero if we can find one. But I tend to resist or evade any kind of authority based merely on the power to coerce. Government, for example. The Army tried to train us to salute the uniform, not the man. Failed. I will salute the man, maybe, if I think he's worthy of it, but I don't salute uniforms anymore.

I would say George Mitchell was like Clark Kent sometimes with his horn rimmed glasses and his very quiet manner. People say, well, he's just a quiet leader, but then he emerges as super hero and begins to move this legislation. He led by example.

[Writing of Harry Truman:] The 1947 assumption of responsibility in the Eastern Mediterranean, the 1948 grandeur of the Marshall Plan, the response to the blockade of Berlin, the NATO defense of Europe in 1949, and the intervention in Korea in 1950—all those constituted expanded action in truly heroic mold. All of them required rare capacity to decide and act.