You know that’s the tough part about a hero. He has to eat. We take care of them with too much newspaper space and not enough permanent endowment. We have great fellows back from the War that can show you two medals for every sack of flour they have in the house. They’ve got a foreign decoration for every American dollar they have. Heroing is one of the shortest-lifed professions there is.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist

Column (1925-02-15), “Weekly Article: Monuments Are All Right But Even Heroes Must Eat” [No. 114]
    (Source)

Collected in a shorter version in The Autobiography of Will Rogers, ch. 10 (1926) [ed. Donald Day].