Mamacita says:  Heroes are all around us. We don’t know who they are until something happens and they leap into action. Ironically, the heroes don’t know they’re heroes until something happens, either.

We all hope that we’ll react heroically, but the fact is, NOBODY knows until after the fact whether he/she will even do the right thing, let alone go above and beyond the right thing.

When disaster strikes, many people shrug and go about their business, secure in the safety of geography and circumstance while others disregard both of those, rub their hands together, and set to. Jim Turner, for example, wanted to do more than just watch people suffer on the news, and, with some help from WhatGives.com, did a 24-hour telethon to help the people of Haiti that is still being Twittered. Check for the hashtag #HART; that’s Jim’s telethon!  Jim’s a hero.  So are many others.

1. I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom. — Bob Dylan

2. A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. —
Umberto Eco

4. Heroes are people who rise to the occasion and slip quietly away. — Tom Brokaw

5. Heroes come along when you need them. — Ronald Steel

6. A hero is a man who does what he can. — Roman Rollard

7. I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people convinced that they are about to change the world. I am more awed by…those who…struggle to make one small difference after another. — Ellen Goodman

8. Real heroes are men who fall and fail and are flawed, but win out in the end because they’ve stayed true to their ideals and beliefs and commitments. — Kevin Costner

9. How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes! — Maya Angelou

10. The cowards think of what they can lose, the heroes of what they can win. –J. M. Charlier

11. 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

12. The hero is known for achievements; the celebrity for well-knowns. The hero reveals the possibilities of human nature. The celebrity reveals the possibilities of the press and media. Celebrities are people who make news, but heroes are people who make history. Time makes heroes but dissolves celebrities. –Daniel J. Boorstin

13. A hero is simply someone who rises above his own human weaknesses, for an hour, a day, a year, to do something stirring. –Betty Deramus

14. True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. –Arthur Ashe

15. The world is moved not only by the mighty shoves of the heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. –Helen Keller

16. In our world of big names, curiously, our true heroes tend to be anonymous. In this life of illusion and quasi-illusion, the person of solid virtues who can be admired for something more substantial than his well-knownness often proves to be the unsung hero: the teacher, the nurse, the mother, the honest cop, the hard worker at lonely, underpaid, unglamorous, unpublicized jobs. — Daniel J. Boorstin

17. Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion. — Calvin Coolidge

18. A boy doesn’t have to go to war to be a hero; he can say he doesn’t like pie when he sees there isn’t enough to go around. — Edgar Watson Howe

19. The hero, in living her own life, in being true to herself; radiates a light by which others may see their own way. — Laurence G. Boldt

20. Hard times don’t create heroes. It is during the hard times when the ‘hero’ within us is revealed. — Bob Riley

21. Our young people look up to us. Let us not let them down. Our young people need us. Saving them will make heroes of us all. — Gale Sayers

22. Receiving far less attention are the working class heroes, who go about their solitary work routines with quiet dignity, come home from another grueling day, yet still find time to interact with their children. — Armstrong Williams

23. Man’s greatest actions are performed in minor struggles. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment and poverty are battlefields which have their heroes – obscure heroes who are at times greater than illustrious heroes. — Victor Hugo

24. We need more everyday heroes. Heroes are ordinary people who take a stand for what is right. — Blaine Jackson

25. What the world needs now, more than ever before, are every day heroes who are ready, willing and able to make a difference. — Greg Hickman

26. If you’re going to do anything that pioneering, you will get those arrows in the back, and you just have to put up with it. — Randy Pausch

27. If you’re never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances. — Julia Sorel

28. In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. — Unknown

29. If your purpose of life is security, you will be a failure. Security is the lowest form of happiness. — David Kekich

30. Dr. Martin Luther King is not a black hero. He is an American hero. — Morgan Freeman

31. A ship in harbor is safe — but that is not what ships are built for. — John A. Shedd,