Encouraging Quotes from Historical Heroes
- Erika St Gelais
- Aug 2, 2019
- 8 min read
Everyone needs encouragement from time to time. The bible uses words like encourage often and I have below some research from the books in the Bible in Deuteronomy and 1st Samuel focusing on encouragement how it benefits people to become encouraged. With the Lord’s help we can become great. Greatness doesn’t just lie in the hand of the ones who had a fortunate upbringing or to those who had an easy childhood. Greatness can reside in those who chose it. Here are some biblical examples of this and after those are some famous quotes from Historical heroes.
The Bible speaks of encouragement in Deuteronomy 1:38, it says, “But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.” We are all made for great things. Even when we don’t realize our potential, it doesn’t take the fact that we have it away. Just because you don’t see something great in you doesn't mean you Are made for greatness. So I have put together a list of quotes from famous, historical heroes. Don’t skip before the end of this article though or you will miss the most valuable part.
We have a purpose and sometimes we can encourage ourselves and other times it can be beneficial and most helpful to be encouraged by someone else. As 1 Samuel 30:6 states about Daniel, “And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” David was not stoned in this instant I should probably let you know. Instead he asked if the Lord what to do and encouraged himself in the Lord as 1 Samuel 30:8 says, “And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.”
And later on at the end of verse 19 it states how, “... :David recovered all.”
"Courage is grace under pressure." -- Ernest Hemingway
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." -- Albert Einstein
"It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop." - Confucius
"Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill
"Whenever you see a successful person, you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them." -- Vaibhav Shah
"Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value." -- Albert Einstein
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." -- Eleanor Roosevelt
"The difference between winning and losing is most often not quitting." - Walt Disney
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." -- Thomas Edison
“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him." -- David Brinkley
“Genius is talent set on fire by courage.“
I also put together a little research on each historical hero’s failures and achievements! Not to emphasize the bad or glory in the good but to look at the reality of the great people’s lives to ensure you know the truth of the matter. No one is perfect and we cannot attain greatness expecting to jump around our imperfections. However, we can hone the skills and talents we do have by walking through the fire just like these people did once. By doing so we can burn the imperfections out and amplify goodness and greatness among the people present in the world today. Below are some maybe not so well-known facts about the heroes formerly quoted above:
Ernest Hemingway- was not only a Nobel Prize-winning novelist but also one of the strongest influencers of American writers in the 20th century. Hemingway earned the Italian silver medal of valor and American bronze star. Apparently he was also allegedly a KGB spy but not the greatest at it. This is something that may not be as well-known as his successes have been gloried to fame one way or another. Bustle (at bustle.com)writer, Allyson Gronowitz, says that he evaded death time after time in this excerpt from their article “Ernest Hemingway was a Failed KGB Spy, and Other Fun Facts”, “Brushes with death, fake death, and potentially accidental real death: The great American author publicized the injuries he suffered during World War I and World War II in books such as A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises. He also narrowly evaded death during the Spanish Civil War when three shells burst into his hotel room, and he nearly died of blood poisoning while on an African safari.” Although Ernest Hemingway’s life wasn’t a perfect one he accomplished much and overcame great feats.
Albert Einstein- Einstein started changing the world at such a young age. He started having failures at an even younger age. Yet still proceeded to make greatness evident in not only his life but those around him and generations to come. Einstein produced paper in his early 20’s. Papers that changed our world and way of understanding. Yet Einstein started producing the papers that changed our understanding. While doing so he still had to maintain a living as a patent clerk. By the the time he reached his 40’s, he was not just known for the large amount of work he researched, discovered and proved but his fame had gone global. Albert Einstein’s discoveries and fame were not just well known by chance but only because of his sacrifice, hard work and determination to persevere. You see he had come by many failures in his life before succeeding in much. He did not speak until he was 4 years and did not read until he was 7 years old putting him at a rocky start. He was also forced to leave his home country, Germany, because of his Jewish culture. He then came to the US where he continued research and the fame of his intelligence and discoveries arose.
Confucius- He restored important and valuable moral teachings of ancient sages in China. He developed philosophies that lead to construction of the belief called Confucianism. Which is founded upon the teachings of Confucius and impacted history of China greatly. It is seen as, “a moral guide for different strata of society, government and its organizations,” as “10 Major Contributions of Chinese Philosopher Confucius” by Arun states. His teachings impacted SIX centuries of the Chinese. One thing that Confucius was not well known by impacted his view on his accomplishments and reaching others what that he believed he was a failure because he did not reach the goals had set out to. Although he accomplished wonderful things his only failure to be seen was that he remained in denial of what good he had done because of the level achievement he held himself responsible for.
Winston Churchill-, as we know him, was successful in leading the British to victory in WWII. However, he actually did not regain position as prime minister after his original term ended. For some wild reason he didn’t have the support of the country the second time running. He didn’t let that stop him and ran again and successfully regained the spot as Prime Minister from 1951-1955. Big win. Big fail. Trial and error that lead to success all because he didn’t give in or give up. This was part of what made him famous, because he didn’t give up on meek and seemingly hopeless circumstances he remained triumphant in most things that he did because he didn’t let those things that he failed at win over his true goals, desires and values.
Vaibhav Shah- I am sorry to say I couldn’t find one article on this man.
Eleanor Roosevelt- (1884 – 1962) An American who played a huge role in politics as the president’s wife of 1933-1945. She was an impactful role model as an American politician and First Lady of the United States. She certainly changed the view of what The First Lady of the United States should and can do and emphasized the values on which one in such a position stood for. On top of all this role modeling as The First Lady, Eleanor also wrote a daily newspaper column, took part in establishing the National Youth Administration and succeeded in her part skillfully and accomplished during WWII. She didn’t stop here though. Eleanor Roosevelt became, not only, the first U.S. Delegate to the United Nations but the first woman at that. She also presided over the committee that drafted Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Although she accomplished much, her accomplishments were born from a hard life which consisted of an abusive father, a not-so encouraging mother, the death of a sibling and soon before her eleventh birthday, her parents. Eleanor Roosevelt also overcame living in the knowledge and reality of her husbands illness. Despite adversities she remained accomplished and driven.
Walt Disney- built an amazing animation that soon after became not only the success of his time in an animation but revolutionized the animation industry itself. In 1928 he discovered how to do synchronized sound in animation. He then released the short film in Steamboat Willie. Disney being on of the first to use the multi plane camera did so in the creation of animation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to them create a three-d parallax effect. Although the accomplishments of Walt Disney are great and widespread, Disney could not forgive himself for the loss of his parents. The loss of his parents, specifically his mother caused him to leave mothers out of the picture throughout many Disney films. He remained to believe it was his fault for the loss of both parents but remained painfully successful throughout the rest of his life anyway.
Thomas Edison- is known for his “discovery and creation of the light bulb” and named America’s greatest inventor. However, Edison, in fact, did not actually discover this first or maybe at all. This was his biggest mistake, that he allowed the light to be shown on himself instead of honesty and light shown on the true creators of the light bulb, Humphrey Davy and Joseph Swan. They actually won the patent rights to the light bulb. So what did Thomas Edison accomplish then?
He founded a lab where inventions were created and discoveries that changed the world formed. This lab was called Edison Laboratories at Menlo Park. It was “the first industrial research laboratory.” So, no, he may not have been truly responsible for creating the lightbulb itself but he took part in many inventions and creations that made our world what it is today. Everyone slips ip from time to time and a lot of people get greedy but it still doesn’t take away from his actually accomplishments. Thomas Edison was human like the rest of us and made mistakes.
David Brinkley- was a newscaster for NBC and ABC in America. His career spanned from 1943 to 1997. His career began early in his high school years where he had an internship at a local newspaper, his career maintained and flourishing through even one of the world war’s. He started as a writer and when he came home to Nashville, became a reporter because he found no writing jobs. His failure to find another writing job lead to his success as beloved newscaster. NBC was first in the radio before television came about so he was also one of the first televised newscasters. This success on NBC lead to the well-known show Huntley-Brinkley Report that won an Emmy award. No matter the failure encountered in past times, David Brinkley decided to keep moving forward and not let failure define him.
Henry VanDyke- was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania and went to Princeton. VanDyke graduated from the theological seminaries in 1877. He continued on life’s journey and became a Presbyterian minister that impacted many and in turn lead to his fame. He read his work called “The story of the other wise man” over the pulpit of his church along with many others. His stories spread like wildfire. He lived a good life and brought hope, joy and values to the people of his time and to anyone who continues to read his works.
WORKS CITED
•http://factmyth.com/factoids/edison-never-invented-anything/
Writer of this article: Erika St. Gelais
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