Anthony M. Esolen Quote
You democratize heroism. Everybody is a hero, and simply for doing (and often not well at that) the ordinary tasks of living as a half-decent person. Does your mother fix you breakfast? She is a hero. Does your father visit you every weekend without fail? A hero. Does your teacher mark your papers faithfully when you make a mistake? Unexampled heroism, that. If everyone is a hero, then no one is a hero; and genuine heroes will go unnoticed in all the mindless self-congratulation.
Anthony M. Esolen
You democratize heroism. Everybody is a hero, and simply for doing (and often not well at that) the ordinary tasks of living as a half-decent person. Does your mother fix you breakfast? She is a hero. Does your father visit you every weekend without fail? A hero. Does your teacher mark your papers faithfully when you make a mistake? Unexampled heroism, that. If everyone is a hero, then no one is a hero; and genuine heroes will go unnoticed in all the mindless self-congratulation.
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About Anthony M. Esolen
Anthony M. Esolen is a writer, social commentator, translator of classical poetry, and Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Thales College, having been invited to join the faculty in 2023. He previously taught at Furman University, Providence College, Thomas More College of Liberal Arts and Magdalen College of the Liberal Arts.
Esolen has translated into English Dante's Divine Comedy, Lucretius' On the Nature of Things, and Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. He is the author of over 30 books and over 1,000 articles in such publications as The Modern Age, The Catholic World Report, Chronicles, for which he serves as a contributing editor, The Claremont Review of Books, The Public Discourse, First Things, Crisis Magazine, The Catholic Thing, and Touchstone, for which he serves as a senior editor. He is a regular contributor to Magnificat, and has written frequently for a host of other online journals. He is a poet in his own right, and his book-length sacred poem, The Hundredfold, has been called a Christian poetic masterpiece.
Esolen, a Catholic, writes on a broad field of topics—literature, the arts, and social commentary—and is known as a conservative and a traditionalist scholar. Professor Esolen, who had taught in the Development of Western Civilization program at Providence College for twenty-seven years, Professor Esolen criticized the concept of "diversity" as the term is commonly used in the modern academy and became the target of a campus protest. The administration's actions in response to this protest influenced his decision to leave Providence College.
Esolen has translated into English Dante's Divine Comedy, Lucretius' On the Nature of Things, and Torquato Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. He is the author of over 30 books and over 1,000 articles in such publications as The Modern Age, The Catholic World Report, Chronicles, for which he serves as a contributing editor, The Claremont Review of Books, The Public Discourse, First Things, Crisis Magazine, The Catholic Thing, and Touchstone, for which he serves as a senior editor. He is a regular contributor to Magnificat, and has written frequently for a host of other online journals. He is a poet in his own right, and his book-length sacred poem, The Hundredfold, has been called a Christian poetic masterpiece.
Esolen, a Catholic, writes on a broad field of topics—literature, the arts, and social commentary—and is known as a conservative and a traditionalist scholar. Professor Esolen, who had taught in the Development of Western Civilization program at Providence College for twenty-seven years, Professor Esolen criticized the concept of "diversity" as the term is commonly used in the modern academy and became the target of a campus protest. The administration's actions in response to this protest influenced his decision to leave Providence College.