Norman Mailer Quotes

I think on some level, that's a fear that exists in everybody, that if we're tested, we won't make the courageous choice. We won't make the decision that would make us heroic. We make the decision that would reveal us to be all too human.

This, to me, is the ultimately heroic trait of ordinary people; they say no to the tyrant and they calmly take the consequences of this resistance.

I am proud to have lied. Lying under torture is not easy. In the face of torture, a person with dignity lies. Enduring torture is very difficult ... The pain is unbearable; you can not imagine how. I am proud to have lied, because I saved my comrades from the same torture and from death.

Heroism means going out of bounds. In this world things must go out of bounds from time to time... No one can desire that the world continue to muddle along in every respect in the groove into which imperfect laws and even more imperfect behavior have pushed it. Without heroic intervention no Council of Nicaea, no dethronement of the Merovingians, no conquest of England, no Reformation, no revolt of the Netherlands, no free America. The thing that counts is who intervenes, how and in the name of what.

A lot of my characters are anti-heroes that became heroes.

I learned that moral courage is harder than physical courage.

Caesar was a man of great common sense and good taste, meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage.

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.

That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward.

Leadership is about doing what you know is right - even when a growing din of voices around you is trying to convince you to accept what you know to be wrong.

Heroism is endurance for one moment more.

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

Leadership is about doing the right thing, even if it going against a vast number of naysayers and mediocre people.

There's something about the good-hearted guy fighting the system. I just love that. That's how 'Speed' is. He's a really focused guy with a heart of gold and the corporations are trying to crush him and use him for his skills to make them more money.

It has been my honor to support and work with President Barack Obama, a man who has brought courage and character to the presidency. President Obama's strength of character leads him to do the right thing, even when it isn't the easy thing.

None meet life honestly and few heroically.

Mandela's heroism is the heroism of a man who suffered so badly for what he thought of as freedom. And yet when he had the upper hand he has this incredible self-control and these incredible leadership qualities.

Virtues, like viruses, have their seasons of contagion. When catastrophe strikes, generosity spikes like a fever. Courage spreads in the face of tyranny.

Great leaders are willing to sacrifice the numbers to save the people. Poor leaders sacrifice the people to save the numbers.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

Movies, TV, sports, come and go, but what you stand for is what people remember. Mandela, Martin Luther King, John Kennedy are people who really stood for something and were willing to die for it. You don't see a whole lot of that any more.

People who really try to be conscious of what they have done, who take responsibility, to me these kinds of people are heroes.

I think you need people of principle, of character, that are leaders, that take stands on important tough issues that will affect the future of this country.

A bad guy always assumes he's going to win, whereas the good guy has to struggle with, what if I lose?, and the audience wants to struggle with him.

I would rather be beaten, and be a man, than to be elected and be a little puppy dog.