Quotes of the Day

Bono
2003 Hero/Ireland
After establishing himself as the world's most effective advocate for the poor, Bono found time to return to the profession that made him famous: rock musician. U2's first album since 2000, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, was greeted by fans last November as a return to artistic form. Then this summer, Bono got back to cajoling world leaders into committing themselves to debt relief for Africa and helping stage this summer's Live 8 concerts. For the rest of the year, U2 is touring North America.

Vika & Olya Kallagova
2004 Heroes/Russia
Vika's astonishing bravery in refusing to leave the Beslan school seized by Chechen terrorists in September 2004 without her little sister, Olya, was an act of light in the blackest of outrages. Olya's injured arm is better and Vika's shrapnel wounds are on the mend, but the emotional damage will take longer to heal. Still, after a year of therapy, both Vika, now 14, and Olya, 9, returned to school in Beslan last month.

Ellen MacArthur
2004 Hero/Britain
On Nov. 28 last year, MacArthur set sail from Ushant, off the French coast, in her $2 million, state-of-the-art trimaran, returning 71 days 14 hr. 18 min. 33 sec. later — the record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe. She was rewarded for her lonely, often fraught journey by being made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire at only 28. This year, she hopes to make the fastest west-to-east solo crossing of the Atlantic.

Anna Politkovskaya
2003 Hero/Russia
As an award-winning correspondent for the Moscow daily Novoya Gazeta, Politkovskaya has often straddled the thin line between reporting a story and becoming part of it. Her efforts to mediate at the besieged school in Beslan last September were thwarted when she fell seriously ill; the result, she claims, of poison slipped in her tea on the flight there. For her commitment to free speech and democracy, she was awarded the Olof Palme Prize in January.

Steffi Graf
2004 hero/germany
Fully occupied with two kids of her own, ex-tennis champion Graf still chairs Children for Tomorrow, the foundation she set up in 1998 for children and families traumatized by war and violence. She keeps funds flowing to projects in Germany, Kosovo, Mozambique and South Africa, which involve psychiatrists and therapists from the University of Hamburg-Eppendorf. Her rare court appearances are mostly with husband Andre Agassi in humorous print and TV ads for Genworth Financial, a U.S. financial-services company that sponsors their charitable work.

Sorious Samura
2004 Hero/Sierra Leone
Having documented the effects of the brutal civil war in his native Sierra Leone, the award-winning filmmaker continues to chronicle Africa's suffering. In order to make Living with Refugees, he joined a family for a month last year in their struggle to reach a U.N. camp in Chad; in Living with AIDS, he spent a further month as a ward orderly in Zambia, where 240 people die of AIDS every day.

Jamie Oliver
2003 Hero/Britain
Since Oliver opened his London restaurant Fifteen in 2002, some 37 disadvantaged young people have trained there to be professional chefs. Last year, he tackled the junk food served in most British state schools and launched the Feed Me Better campaign, which has sent the issue racing up the political agenda.

Carlo Petrini
2004 Hero/Italy
The Slow Food Movement started by Carlo Petrini in 1986 continues to gather pace. Its founding principles, to maximize both the quality and distinctiveness of the food we eat and of the time and circumstances in which we enjoy it, have now been adopted by more than 1,000 communities worldwide. Petrini's University of Gastronomic Sciences opened last October in Piedmont and Emilia Romagna, Italy. There are now 49 towns (35 of them in Italy) marketing themselves as Slow Cities.

Sylvie Guillem
2004 Hero/France
At an age when most prima ballerinas are getting ready to hang up their pointe shoes, 40-year-old Guillem, who has been thrilling audiences and inspiring young dancers with her elastic, gymnastic technique for over 20 years, continues to make daring leaps. Guillem has immersed herself in experimental dance and last October teamed up with British choreographer Russell Maliphant to present a series of new works.

Natasa Kandic
2003 Hero/Serbia
Kandic's dogged pursuit of proof of Serbian war crimes has earned her harassment at home. But the video she uncovered of Serb troops executing Bosnian prisoners at Srebrenica in 1995, which ran on television this spring, was stunning evidence in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic and a shock for doubters in Belgrade, where Serbian President Boris Tadic called it "proof of a monstrous crime committed ... in the name of our nation."

Zackie Achmat
2003 Hero/South Africa
In late 2003, the AIDS activist and founder of the Treatment Action Campaign won his fight with the South African government for access to antiretroviral drugs. As a result, many of the country's estimated five million HIV/AIDS sufferers can now get those drugs through employers and clinics at affordable prices. His courage and perseverance earned him a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. In March 2005, Achmat, who himself is HIV-positive, suffered a heart attack from which he is still recovering.

• Some heroes are made in a moment; more often, though, heroes make their own moments by the force of their convictions and determination. Here are a dozen TIME heroes from years past who still inspire