Masaryk was notable for his ability to take some really unpopular stands and be later proven quite correct.
For example, he was one of the people who forcefully argued for fakeness of the so-called "Manuscripts", which were held in high esteem by the emerging patriotic intellectual class.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuscripts_of_Dv%C5%AFr_Kr%C3...
He also took side of a Jewish guy called Leopold Hilsner, who was accused of a ritual murder of a Czech girl:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilsner_affair
Plenty of anti-Semites hated him for that and he received a lot of threats.
And, at an already old age, he left his country to fight for independence of future Czechoslovakia, which looked like a quixotic mission until it suddenly bore fruit.
