Jump off. You are a protected individual. Do not fear.
The ordinary man is involved in action, the hero acts. An immense difference.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the distinction between everyday actions and heroic actions, suggesting that true heroes go beyond ordinary involvement to take decisive, impactful action.
Henry Miller's quote highlights the significant difference between the behaviors of an ordinary person and a hero. While an ordinary individual may merely participate in actions without deeper intent or impact, a hero stands out by acting with purpose, courage, and conviction. This distinction prompts a reflection on the nature of action and the qualities that define true heroism, suggesting that heroism is marked not just by involvement, but by the courage to make a difference.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote at a motivational seminar to inspire people to embrace their inner hero.
More from Henry Miller
All quotes βI saw through to the last sign and symbol, but I could not read her face. I could see only the eyes shining through, huge, fleshy-like luminous beasts, as though I were swimming behind them in the electric effluvia of her incandescent vision.
The essential thing is to WANT to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.
Great God! What have I turned into? What right have you people to clutter up my life, steal my time, probe my soul, suckle my thoughts, have me for your companion, confidant, and information bureau? What do you take me for? Am I an entertainer on salary, required every evening to play an intellectual farce under your stupid noses? Am I a slave, bought and paid for, to crawl on my belly in front of you idlers and lay at your feet all that I do and all that I know?
We are swimming on the face of time and all else has drowned, is drowning, or will drown.
To sing you must first open your mouth. You must have a pair of lungs, and a little knowledge of music. It is not necessary to have an accordion, or a guitar. The essential thing is to want to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.
Similar quotes
I don't have a feeling of inferiority. Never had. I'm as good as anybody, but no better.
Being FEARLESS isn't being 100% Not FEARFUL, it's being terrified but you jump anyway.
Though are hands are chained like they are, they haven't taken music from us yet. So that's how I'll fight. People tell me don't quit like everyone else. I wont have no fear.
A warrior is not a person that carries a gun. The biggest war you ever go through is right between your own ears. It's in your mind. We're all going through a war in our mind, and we have to callus our mind to fight that war and to win that war.
'They have nothing in their entire arsenal to break the spirit of one single Republican prisoner-of-war who refuses to be broken,' I thought, and that was very true. They cannot or never will break our spirit.
There are so many ways to be brave in this world. Sometimes bravery involves laying down your life for something bigger than yourself, or for someone else. Sometimes it involves giving up everything you have ever known, or everyone you have ever loved, for the sake of something greater. But sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it is nothing more than gritting your teeth through pain, and the work of every day, the slow walk toward a better life. That is the sort of bravery I must have now.