Huang T‘ing-chien

“ As I recently observed to my own young people, the true hero should be many-sided, but he must not be commonplace. It is impossible to cure that. Upon which, one of them asked by what characteristics this absence of the commonplace was distinguished. “It is hard to say,” I replied. “A man who is not commonplace is, under ordinary circumstances, much like other people. But he who at moments of great trial does not flinch―he is not commonplace.” ”

“ A hero may exist in his generation, either as a man of action or as a man of retirement; he may be inflexible or he may be of gentler mould. In any case, the above test gives the truest estimate of his value. ”