In his 1921 book entitled “The Story of Mankind,” Dutch-American historian Hendrik van Loon reminded readers that since ancient times Iranians called themselves—and were known as—Aryans… 

van Loon also made reference to the “famous Persian proverb which admonishes the hero to ‘be bold but not too bold’…”

van Loon concluded his history book with the following:

“…personal ambitions and personal wickedness and personal greed had very little to do with the final outburst. The original mistake, which was responsible for all this misery, was committed when our scientists began to create a new world of steel and iron and chemistry and electricity and forgot that the human mind is slower than the proverbial turtle, is lazier than the well-known sloth, and marches from one hundred to three hundred years behind the small group of courageous leaders…the moral of the story is a simple one. The world is in dreadful need of men who will assume the new leadership—who will have the courage of their own visions and who will recognise clearly that we are only at the beginning of the voyage, and have to learn an entirely new system of seamanship. They will have to serve for years as mere apprentices. They will have to fight their way to the top against every possible form of opposition. When they reach the bridge, mutiny of an envious crew may cause their death. But some day, a man will arise who will bring the vessel safely to port, and he shall be the hero of the ages.”

[pic TripAdvisor: According to a traveler on TripAdvisor, on a pillar at St. Mary’s Painswick church in England is a carving by a soldier dating to 1643 during the English Civil War that reads "Be bold, be bold, but not too bold"… for educational purposes only]