Heroism works in contradiction to the voice of mankind, and in contradiction, for a time, to the voice of the great and good.
 Ralph Waldo Emerson, Heroism (1841). copy citation

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Author Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source Heroism
Topic heroism contradiction
Date 1841
Language English
Reference in "Essays: First Series"
Note
Weblink https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Essays:_First_Series/Heroism

Context

“It is the avowal of the unschooled man, that he finds a quality in him that is negligent of expense, of health, of life, of danger, of hatred, of reproach, and knows that his will is higher and more excellent than all actual and all possible antagonists. Heroism works in contradiction to the voice of mankind, and in contradiction, for a time, to the voice of the great and good. Heroism is an obedience to a secret impulse of an individual's character. Now to no other man can its wisdom appear as it does to him, for every man must be supposed to see a little farther on his own proper path than any one else.” source