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c7f2430 If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is. laughter loss sacrifice isolation flame Charles Bukowski
8b6cac0 The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. people freedom sacrifice love caring discipline David Foster Wallace
bdab018 She taught me all about real sacrifice. That it should be done from love... That it should be done from necessity, not without exhausting all other options. That it should be done for people who need your strength because they don't have enough of their own. sacrifice tris tris-prior veronica-roth Veronica Roth
7b66765 Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's something to aspire to. sacrifice Mitch Albom
327c22f There are memories that time does not erase... Forever does not make loss forgettable, only bearable. time memories sacrifice Cassandra Clare
644fbac As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation -- either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course. sacrifice inspirational activism healing justice Martin Luther King Jr.
00ed3a1 Life is funny. Things change, people change, but you will always be you, so stay true to yourself and never sacrifice who you are for anyone. one-direction sacrifice life love inspirational cute Zayn Malik
82e0eec "Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove. O no, it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wand'ring bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken." " poetry sacrifice love William Shakespeare
5b393d1 Real magic can never be made by offering someone else's liver. You must tear out your own, and not expect to get it back. magic sacrifice inspirational reminding Peter S. Beagle
04cfe82 "But how will I know who my Soulmate is?" Brida felt that this was one of the most important questions she had ever asked in her life. By taking risks' she said to Brida. ' By risking failure, disappointment, disillusion, but never ceasing in you search for Love. As long as you keep looking, you will triumph in the end." sacrifice soulmate Paulo Coelho
acf4215 Before I go," he said, and paused -- "I may kiss her? sacrifice death love inspirational made-me-cry nobility Charles Dickens
37e906c "Before I go," he said, and paused -- "I may kiss her?" It was remembered afterwards that when he bent down and touched her face with his lips, he murmured some words. The child, who was nearest to him, told them afterwards, and told her grandchildren when she was a handsome old lady, that she heard him say, "A life you love." sacrifice love inspirational made-me-cry nobility Charles Dickens
79a5f58 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. sacrifice john-3-16 scripture Anonymous
fc25850 Find a purpose to serve, not a lifestyle to live. achieve achieving meaning reason reason-to-live sacrifice successful-living inspiration inspire living motivation inspiring motivational success life inspirational achievement purpose-in-life reason-to-breathe lifestyle motivate motivating ambition purpose goals Criss Jami
b03e0b9 If she loved him the way she said she did, she wanted him whole. Maybe this was what love meant after all: sacrifice and selflessness. It did not mean hearts and flowers and a happy ending, but the knowledge that another's well-being is more important than one's own. sacrifice reality well-being selflessness Melissa de la Cruz
f29d6c8 Without pain, without sacrifice we would have nothing. Like the first monkey shot into space. pain sacrifice pointless space Chuck Palahniuk
c6be5f6 Love without sacrifice is like theft marriage true-love relationships sacrifice love marriage-advice passive-aggressive passive-aggressiveness narcissists manipulation real-love narcissism Nassim Nicholas Taleb
693347b You don't get it, Clary. You don't understand what it's like to live always at war, to grow up with battle and sacrifice. I guess it's not your fault. It's just how you were brought up- war sacrifice life city-of-glass isabelle-lightwood mortal-instruments Cassandra Clare
3b0cf47 God knows we're all drawn toward what's beautiful and broken; I have been, but some people cannot be fixed. Or if they can be, it's only by love and sacrifice so great it destroys the giver. sacrifice love beautiful-disaster broken depressed sad Cassandra Clare
98b19b7 "Do you see, Harry? Do you see the flaw in my brilliant plan now? I had fallen into the trap I had foreseen, that I had told myself I could avoid, that I must avoid." "I don't --" "I cared about you too much," said Dumbledore simply. "I cared more for your happiness than your knowing the truth, more for your peace of mind than my plan, more for your life than the lives that might be lost if the plan failed. In other words, I acted exactly as Voldemort expects we fools who love to act. "Is there a defense? I defy anyone who has watched you as I have -- and I have watched you more closely than you can have imagined -- not to want to save you more pain than you had already suffered. What did I care if numbers of nameless and faceless people and creatures were slaughtered in the vague future, if in the here and now you were alive, and well, and happy? I never dreamed that I would have such a person on my hands." sacrifice love devotion J.K. Rowling
ddd23d6 In a brutal country like ours, where human life is 'cheap', it's stupid to destroy yourself for the sake of your beliefs. Beliefs? High ideas? Only people in rich countries can enjoy such luxuries. sacrifice Orhan Pamuk
af53c98 We set out to save the Shire, Sam and it has been saved - but not for me. sacrifice success J.R.R. Tolkien
61dd709 For what is love itself, for the one we love best? - an enfolding of immeasurable cares which yet are better than any joys outside our love. joy sacrifice love George Eliot
4e4e2a9 When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process. sacrifice though Robert M. Pirsig
5a98dda I was aware that we were both silently making those inevitable comparisons, putting our relationship in context. She is more this and less that. He is better or worse in these ways. It is human nature to do this--unless its your first relationship, which might be the very reason that your first relationship feels special and remains forever sacred. But the older you get, the more cynical you become, and the more complicated and convoluted the exercise is. You begin to realize that nothing is perfect, that there are trade-offs and sacrifices. The worst is when someone in your past trumps the person in the present, and you think to yourself: if I'd known this, then maybe I wouldn't have let him go. relationships sacrifice Emily Giffin
cd20890 Also ... the plan sounded exactly like the sneaky, twisted, ridiculously annoying and noble sort of thing Leo Valdez would do. sacrifice Rick Riordan
56bbd33 "Do we not each dream of dreams? Do we not dance on the notes of lost sex shakespeare magic rain poems romance sacrifice death dreams music songs life carrack cityisle cityspire desolate fedora haunts horace-walpole mannequins phillip-k-dick puddles specters spectre amnesia androids haunting greek-mythology waking damnation count emily-dickinson magick tempest apocalypse reflections storms masquerade empty science-fiction gothic jazz ships ghosts water piano Nathan Reese Maher
adef29a How often the priest had heard the same confession--Man was so limited: he hadn't even the ingenuity to invent a new vice: the animals knew as much. It was for this world that Christ had died: the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater the glory lay around the death; it was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or civilization--it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt. sacrifice death god glory corruption vice evil sin Graham Greene
0da2093 For him, I had done this-for him I'd gladly wrecked myself and my immortal soul. And now I had an eternity to live with it. young-adult sacrifice sarah-j-maas feyre tamlin immortal Sarah J. Maas
3b3b654 "Phury knelt beside him and stroked his face. "I've only ever had you to live for. If you die I have nothing. I'm utterly lost. And you are needed here." Zsadist tried to reach out, but couldn't lift his arms as Phury stood up. "God, Z, I keep thinking this tragedy of ours is going to be over. But it just keeps going, doesn't it?" Zsadist blacked out to the sound of his twin's boots heading from the room." sacrifice love J.R. Ward
9e78e95 "Don't hate me forever, Arty," whispered Holly. "I couldn't bear that." sacrifice touching holly Eoin Colfer
0f0c0cb Well, you have the right to make a sacrifice of yourself, but I'll be damned if I'll let you sacrifice me! sacrifice Georgette Heyer
3759da6 Tereza's mother never stopped reminding her that being a mother meant sacrificing everything. Her words had the ring of truth, backed as they were by the experience of a woman who had lost everything because of her child. Tereza would listen and believe that being a mother was the highest value in life and that being a mother was a great sacrifice. If a mother was Sacrifice personified, then a daughter was Guilt, with no possibility of redress. sacrifice mothers guilt Milan Kundera
2cb74fd Because love was not the answer to every question. Because real love meant sacrifice. Sometimes love means letting go. sacrifice love truth Melissa de la Cruz
a8fbbcd "Wait," said Butler. "Just wait, Holly. Artemis has a plan." He squinted through the green dome. "What is your plan, Artemis?" All Artemis could do was smile and shrug." sacrifice death Eoin Colfer
fb5cc13 Artemis looked at Holly and felt a tremendous affection for her... he could properly appreciate how fierce and beautiful his best friend was... She is truly magical, thought Artemis. Perhaps her qualities are more obvious to me now that I have decided to sacrifice myself. sacrifice holly Eoin Colfer
43a620d For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. And when you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you. sacrifice love sydney-carton Charles Dickens
1034221 I did not say anything. I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, sometimes standing in the rain almost out of earshot, so that only the shouted words came through, and had read them on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters over other proclamations, now for a long time, and I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stock yards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it. war sacrifice propaganda honor Ernest Hemingway
097808b WL's [White Liberals] think all the world's problems can be fixed without any cost to themselves. We don't believe that. There's a lot to be said for sacrifice, remorse, even pity. It's what separates us from roaches sacrifice Paul Farmer
66057f4 "There is but one task for all -- One life for each to give. What stands if Freedom fall?" [ ]" sacrifice Rudyard Kipling
df2ed58 "How could you...? How?" "Logically you have no right to be angry. I simply followed your lead." ... "No," She managed. "There is no other way." sacrifice holly Eoin Colfer
29543c7 I needed to choose between the one thing that really filled m thoughts-my love for that woman-and losing my freedom and all the choices that the future promised me. To be honest, the decision was easy. -Lukas Jessen-Petersen marriage sacrifice Paulo Coelho
c263b90 The Court of Dreams. The people who knew that there was a price, and one worth paying, for that dream. sacrifice friendship inspirational price Sarah J. Maas
e17fd53 "There is a stillness between us, a period of restlessness that ties my stomach sex shakespeare magic rain poems romance sacrifice death dreams music songs life carrack cityisle cityspire desolate fedora haunts horace-walpole mannequins phillip-k-dick puddles specters spectre amnesia androids haunting greek-mythology waking damnation count emily-dickinson magick tempest apocalypse reflections storms masquerade empty science-fiction gothic jazz ships ghosts water piano Nathan Reese Maher
345669d Every November of my boyhood, we put on red poppies and attended highly patriotic services in remembrance of those who had 'given' their lives. But on what assurance did we know that these gifts had really been made? Only the survivors--the living--could attest to it. In order to know that a person had truly laid down his life for his friends, or comrades, one would have to hear it from his own lips, or at least have heard it promised in advance. And that presented another difficulty. Many brave and now dead soldiers had nonetheless been conscripts. The known martyrs--those who actually, voluntarily sought death and rejoiced in the fact--had been the kamikaze pilots, immolating themselves to propitiate a 'divine' emperor who looked (as Orwell once phrased it) like a monkey on a stick. Their Christian predecessors had endured torture and death (as well as inflicted it) in order to set up a theocracy. Their modern equivalents would be the suicide murderers, who mostly have the same aim in mind. About people who set out to lose their lives, then, there seems to hang an air of fanaticism: a gigantic sense of self-importance unattractively fused with a masochistic tendency to self-abnegation. Not wholesome. The better and more realistic test would therefore seem to be: In what cause, or on what principle, would you your life? suicide war christianity friends sacrifice death religion christian-martyrs conscription kamikaze memorials poppies self-abnegation suicide-attack martyrs masochism orwell november comrades soldiers theocracy ugliness causes martyrdom self-importance patriotism principles fanaticism childhood torture Christopher Hitchens
f61c92d The Buggers have finally, finally learned that we humans value each and every individual human life... But they've learned this lesson just in time for it to be hopelessly wrong--for we humans do, when the cause is sufficient, spend our own lives. We throw ourselves onto the grenade to save our buddies in the foxhole. We rise out of the trenches and charge the entrenched enemy and die like maggots under a blowtorch. We strap bombs on our bodies and blow ourselves up in the midst of our enemies. We are, when the cause is sufficient, insane. sacrifice buggers value-of-life human-nature Orson Scott Card
c832886 Do not cry for me, Azrael. Do not waste your tears. You made your decision. And this is mine. Sacrifice seems to be my destiny. A funny thing for a selfish man, isn't it? They always called me weak back then... sacrifice love kingsley mimi Melissa de la Cruz
dd825ae Every job will demand some sacrifice. The key is to avoid unnecessary sacrifice. sacrifice Sheryl Sandberg
87e1879 For my own part I would as soon be descended from that heroic little monkey, who braved his dreaded enemy in order to save the life of his keeper; or from that old baboon, who, descending from the mountains, carried away in triumph his young comrade from a crowd of astonished dogs--as from a savage who delights to torture his enemies, offers up bloody sacrifices, practices infanticide without remorse, treats his wives like slaves, knows no decency, and is haunted by the grossest superstitions. evolution man slavery humanity sacrifice great-ape great-apes apes belief preference superstition humans torture Charles Darwin
ae460af There is not a day or night but a doe offers her life for her kittens, or some honest captain of Owsla his life for his Chief Rabbit's. Sometimes it is taken, sometimes it is not. But there is no bargain, for here, what is, is what must be. sacrifice Richard Adams
02f20b2 Why don't people ask us about our hope? The answer is probably that we look as if we hope in the same things they do. Our lives don't look like they are on the Calvary road, stripped down for sacrificial love, serving others with the sweet assurance that we don't need to be rewarded in this life. sacrifice hope life service John Piper
bc88a1a When he sacrifices himself man for a moment is greater than God, for how can God, infinite and omnipotent, sacrifice himself? christianity sacrifice religion god W. Somerset Maugham
ed4bb96 "From out of nowhere, Phury felt an overwhelming tide of guilt, like someone had popped the lid off all his deepest concerns and his fears for the future of the race. He had to respond to it, couldn't bear the pressure. Riding the wave, he found himself saying in a rush, "We live and die for our kind. The species is our first and only concern. We fight every night and count the jars of thelessers we kill. Stealth is the way we protect the civilians. The less they know about us, the safer they are. That is why we disappeared." sacrifice phury secrecy duty J.R. Ward
debbe08 "I see a girl, soon to be a woman," Tibb continues. "The girl who will share your life. She will love you, she will betray you, and finally she will die for you. And it will all have been for nothing. All for nothing in the end." sacrifice love fortune-telling Joseph Delaney
9c499e0 A painless lesson is one without any meaning, one who does not sacrifice anything cannot achieve anything. sacrifice Hiromu Arakawa
3202d65 "She had been wrong in thinking Christ had been called up against his will to fight in a war. He didn't look - in spite of the crown of thorns - like someone making a sacrifice. Or even like someone determined to "do his bit". He looked instead like Marjorie had looked telling Polly she'd joined the Nursing Service, like Mr Humphreys had looked filling buckets with water and sand to save Saint Paul's, like Miss Laburnum had looked that day she came to Townsend Brothers with the coats. He looked like Captain Faulknor must have looked, lashing the ships together. Like Ernest Shackleton, setting out in that tiny boat across icy seas. Like Colin helping Mr Dunworthy across the wreckage. He looked ... contented. As if he was where he wanted to be, doing what he wanted to do. Like Eileen had looked, telling Polly she'd decided to stay. Like Mike must have looked in Kent, composing engagement announcements and letters to the editor. Exalted. Happy. To do something for someone or something you loved - England or Shakespeare or a dog or the Hodbins or history - wasn't a sacrifice at all. Even if it cost you your freedom, your life, your youth." sacrifice Connie Willis
ea577ab Let us admit, without bitterness, that the individual has his distinct interests and can, without felony, stipulate for those interests and defend them. The present has its pardonable amount of egotism; momentary life has its claims, and cannot be expected to sacrifice itself incessantly to the future. The generation which is in its turn passing over the earth is not forced to abridge its life for the sake of the generations, its equals after all, whose turn shall come later on. sacrifice selfishness Victor Hugo
9142108 "It still hurts," she whispered. "Even when you're doing it for someone else, that doesn't stop your ribs from getting cracked, or your wrist swelling, or your cuts from bleeding." sacrifice Jodi Picoult
e3ffc28 Marriage is one long sacrifice. unhappiness sacrifice Edith Wharton
1c6aa29 Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing. sacrifice preface George Bernard Shaw
4c676fe In a pocket of his knapsack he'd found a last half packet of cocoa and he fixed it for the boy and then poured his own cup with hot water and sat blowing at the rim. You promised not to do that, the boy said. What? You know what, Papa. He poured the hot water back into the pan and took the boy's cup and poured some of the cocoa into his own and then handed it back. I have to watch you all the time, the boy said. sacrifice love generosity selflessness Cormac McCarthy
378121e That is why your sacrifice was all the more difficult. You chose to be a hero not through enchantment but through your own manhood. heroism sacrifice manhood Lloyd Alexander
d61df6b I only wanted to suggest to you that self-sacrifice is a passion so overwhelming that beside it even lust and hunger are trifling. sacrifice W. Somerset Maugham
9f57418 And Pantalaimon didn't ask why, because he knew; and he didn't ask whether Lyra loved Roger more than him, because he knew the true answer to that, too. And he knew that if he spoke, she wouldn't be able to resist; so the daemon held himself quiet so as not to distress the human who was abandoning him, and now they were both pretending that it wouldn't hurt, it wouldn't be long before they were together again, it was all for the best. But Will knew that the little girl was tearing her heart out of her breast. sacrifice love soul Philip Pullman
a0640c5 Success for a woman means absolute surrender, in whatever direction. Whether she paints a picture, or loves a man, there is no division of labor possible in her economy. To the attainment of any end worth living for, a symmetrical sacrifice of her nature is compulsory upon her. woman sacrifice success Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
ce2c2ab If you already have a person's love no sacrifice can be too much to give for it; but any sacrifice is too great to buy it for you. sacrifice love Ludwig Wittgenstein
2cb476e "History doesn't start with a tall building sex shakespeare magic rain poems romance sacrifice death dreams music songs life carrack cityisle cityspire desolate fedora haunts horace-walpole mannequins phillip-k-dick puddles specters spectre amnesia androids haunting greek-mythology waking damnation count emily-dickinson magick tempest apocalypse reflections storms masquerade empty science-fiction gothic jazz ships ghosts water piano Nathan Reese Maher
2a064e0 The quintessential emblem of religion and the clearest manifestation of the perversity that lies at its core is the sacrifice of a child by a parent. Almost all religious faiths incorporate the myth of such a sacrifice, and some have actually made it real. Lucretius had in mind the sacrifice of Iphigenia by her father Agamemnon, but he may also have been aware of the Jewish story of Abraham and Isaac and other comparable Near Eastern stories for which the Romans of his times had a growing taste. Writing around 50 BCE he could not, of course, have anticipated the great sacrifice myth that would come to dominate the Western world, but he would not have been surprised by it or by the endlessly reiterated, prominently displayed images of the bloody, murdered son. sacrifice religion Stephen Greenblatt
0f83d65 "Frequently, and not only in the popular usage, sadomasochism is confounded with love. Masochistic phenomena, especially, are looked upon as expressions of love. An attitude of complete self-denial for the sake of another person and the surrender of one's own rights and claims to another person have been praised as examples of "great love". It seems that there is no better proof for "love" than sacrifice and the readiness to give oneself up for the sake of the beloved person. Actually, in these cases, "love" is essentially a masochistic yearning and rooted in the symbiotic need of the person involved." sacrifice no-greater-love sadomasochism Erich Fromm
d8e6090 Cathy smiled back 'Rules were meant to be broken.' 'Don't disagree,' Oversteegen replied immediately. 'Indeed they are. Providin', however, that the one breakin' the rules is willin' t' pay the price for it, and the price gets charged in full. Which you were, Lady Catharine. I saluted you for it then-at the family dinner table that night, in fact. My mother was infinitely more indisposed thereafter; tottered back t' her bed cursin' me for an ingrate. My father was none too pleased either. I salute you for it, again. Otherwise, breakin' rules becomes the province of brats instead of heroes. Fastest way I can think t' turn serious political affairs int' a playpen. A civilized society needs a conscience, and conscience can't be developed without martyrs--real ones--against which a nation can measure its crimes and sins. sacrifice David Weber
3c9f11b It's one thing to have a goal, but it's quite another thing to actually accept the challenge, develop a strategy to press for the goal, make the sacrifices, pay the price to move forward, and blessing of blessing, to realize some part of it. women dream faith sacrifice god heart love develop goal challenge christian strategy Elizabeth George
1549e17 Because everyone is guilty for everyone else. For all the 'wee ones,' because there are little children and big children. All people are 'wee ones.' And I'll go for all of them, because there must be someone who will go for all of them. sacrifice inspirational russian Fyodor Dostoyevsky
ae33bce "People have traditionally turned to ritual to help them frame and acknowledge and ultimately even find joy in just such a paradox of being human - in the fact that so much of what we desire for our happiness and need for our survival comes at a heavy cost. We kill to eat, we cut down trees to build our homes, we exploit other people and the earth. Sacrifice - of nature, of the interests of others, even of our earlier selves - appears to be an inescapable part of our condition, the unavoidable price of all our achievements. A successful ritual is one that addresses both aspects of our predicament, recalling us to the shamefulness of our deeds at the same time it celebrates what the poet Frederick Turner calls "the beauty we have paid for with our shame." Without the double awareness pricked by such rituals, people are liable to find themselves either plundering the earth without restraint or descending into self-loathing and misanthropy. Perhaps it's not surprising that most of us today bring one of those attitudes or the other to our conduct in nature." nature humanity sacrifice ritual Michael Pollan
72a1a42 To love a woman for her virtues is meaningless. She's earned it, it's a payment, not a gift. But to love her for her vices is a real gift, unearned and undeserved. To love her for her vices is to defile all virtue for her sake - and that is a real tribute of love, because you sacrifice your conscience, your reason, your integrity and your invaluable self-esteem. virtue sacrifice vices Ayn Rand
50c2deb Mariam saw now the sacrifices a mother made. Decency was but one. sacrifice khaled hosseini
3f18e6f "If I - as a beneficiary of that exact formula - will concede that my own life was indeed enriched by that precise familial structure, will the social conservatives please (for once!) concede that this arrangement has always put a disproportionately cumbersome burden on women? Such a system demands that mothers become selfless to the point of near invisibility in order to construct these exemplary encironments for their families. And might those same social conservatives - instead of just praising mothers as "sacred" and "noble" - be willing to someday join a larger conversation about how we might work together as a society to construct a world where healthy children can be raised and healthy families can prosper without women have to scrape bare the walls of their own souls to do so?" sacrifice Elizabeth Gilbert
81017eb Kaltain unleashed the last of her shadowfire, tipping her face to the ceiling, toward a sky she'd never see again. She took every wall and every column. As she brought it all crashing and crumbling around them, Kaltain smiled, and at last burned herself into ash on a phantom wind. sacrifice pg602 Sarah J. Maas
c970422 But I know Jesus arose. I feel his presence now, here, with me. I see the evidence of his Word everyday. From creation forth, the whole world is witness to God's plan revealed through his Son. From the beginning, he prepared us. In the passing of the seasons; in the way flowers spring forth, die, and drop seeds for life to begin again; in the sunset and sunrise. Jesus' sacrifice is reenacted every day of our lives if we but have the eyes to see. seasons jesus sacrifice god witness sunset evidence flowers die eyes sunrise Francine Rivers
6e9cbf3 "She leaves my side and heads deeper into sex shakespeare magic rain poems romance sacrifice death dreams music songs life carrack cityisle cityspire desolate fedora haunts horace-walpole mannequins phillip-k-dick puddles specters spectre amnesia androids haunting greek-mythology waking damnation count emily-dickinson magick tempest apocalypse reflections storms masquerade empty science-fiction gothic jazz ships ghosts water piano Nathan Reese Maher
7e4e665 You can tell yourself that you would be willing to lose everything you have in order to get something you want. But it's a catch-22: all of those things that you're willing to lose are what make you recognizable. Lose them, and you've lost yourself. lies sacrifice identity lose Jodi Picoult
6659a53 You have sacrificed justice to mercy. You have sacrificed independence to unity. You have sacrificed reason to faith. You have sacrificed wealth to need. You have sacrificed self-esteem to self-denial. You have sacrificed happiness to duty. sacrifice life philosophy john-galt morals values Ayn Rand
4d3ddb1 Love isn't just about feeling sure of the other person, knowing what he would give up for you. It's knowing with certainty what you are willing to surrender for his sake. Make no mistake; each partner gives up something. Individual dreams are surrendered for a shared one. In some marriages, one partner gives up almost everything she once thought she wanted. But it's not always the woman who does so. Such sacrifice is not shameful. It's love. If you think the man is worth it, it works. marriage sacrifice Robin Hobb
0ee480c Sweetest of all is liberty. This we have chosen and this we pay for. We have embraced the laws of Lykurgus, and they are stern laws. They have schooled us to scorn the life of leisure, which this rich land of ours would bestow upon us if we wished, and instead to enroll ourselves in the academy of discipline and sacrifice. Guided by these laws, our fathers for twenty generations have breathed the blessed air of freedom and have paid the bill in full when it was presented. We, their sons, can do no less. sacrifice warrior-ethos liberty warrior Steven Pressfield
a39eaf1 France bleeds, but liberty smiles, and before the smile of liberty, France forgets her wound. sacrifice Victor Hugo
7dd98ff It was easy to make fun of the marines when they weren't listening. In Holden's navy days, making fun of jarheads was as natural as cussing. But four marines had died getting him off the Donnager, and three of them had made a conscious decision to do so. Holden promised himself that he'd never make fun of them again. sacrifice marines military James S.A. Corey
de4bdfc It's one thing to go into a fight knowing you'll probably lose. Quite another to be told that to win, you must offer up your throat to be slit. sacrifice kernel-fleck Darren Shan
4c8d46b "That's a stupid name! Whirly-gig is much better, I think. Who in their right mind would point at this thing and say, 'I'm going to fly in my Model-A1'. sex shakespeare magic rain poems romance sacrifice death dreams music songs life carrack cityisle cityspire desolate fedora haunts horace-walpole mannequins phillip-k-dick puddles specters spectre amnesia androids haunting greek-mythology waking damnation count emily-dickinson magick tempest apocalypse reflections storms masquerade empty science-fiction gothic jazz ships ghosts water piano Nathan Reese Maher
c0a3e75 I know human nature. We might sacrifice a few, because we are stupid and hardwired for group survival. But we would never die in the thousands because a god wished it. Those kinds of numbers require material gains, like power, wealth, territory. sacrifice raphael human-nature ilona Andrews
cd45a4b The messages coming back flooded the comm buffers with rage and sorrow, threats of vengeance and offers of aid. Those last were the hardest. New colonies still trying to force their way into local ecosystems so exotic that their bodies could hardly recognize them as life at all, isolated, exhausted, sometimes at the edge of their resources. And what they wanted was to send back help. He listened to their voices, saw the distress in their eyes. He couldn't help, but love them a little bit. Under the best conditions, disasters and plagues did that. It wasn't universally true. There would always be hoarders and price gouging, people who closed their doors to refugees and left them freezing and starving. But the impulse to help was there too. To carry a burden together, even if it meant having less for yourself. Humanity had come as far as it had in a haze of war, sickness, violence, and genocide. History was drenched in blood. But it also had cooperation and kindness, generosity, intermarriage. The one didn't come without the other. war humanism sacrifice inspirational war-relief helping-others refugees James S.A. Corey
9508ba4 There was one slight, desperate chance, and that I decided I must take--it was for Dejah Thoris, and no man has lived who would not risk a thousand deaths for such as she. romantic romance sacrifice love barsoom dejah-thoris john-carter Edgar Rice Burroughs
031875e Compare King William with the philosopher Haeckel. The king is one of the anointed by the most high, as they claim--one upon whose head has been poured the divine petroleum of authority. . Compare with Queen Victoria. The Queen is clothed in garments given her by blind fortune and unreasoning chance, while . The world is beginning to pay homage to intellect, to genius, to heart. We have advanced. . heroic bravery sacrifice heart king-william benefit ernst-haeckel haeckel homage eliot glory george-eliot queen-victoria chance genius sublime intellect colossus Robert G. Ingersoll
e1457b9 ... to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. travel sacrifice Elizabeth Gilbert
b1ea34f If there's no sacrifice, there's no love. sacrifice Hanif Kureishi
60407ba I should send my bees ashore for you, upon my sacred honour. friends sacrifice friendship jack-aubrey Patrick O'Brian
f3b0d12 "Jesus says, "Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me." He says, "The first shall be last and the last shall be first," and infuriating things like "if you seek to find your life you will lose it but those who lose their life will find it." And every single time I die to something--my notions of my own specialness, my plans and desires for something to be a very particular way--every single time I fight it and yet every single time I discover more life and more freedom than if I had gotten what I wanted." jesus sacrifice Nadia Bolz-Weber
2cb3918 I had nothing to prove and everything to lose. But it didn't take love to sacrifice something of yourself for someone else. It just took desperation. sacrifice love Beth Revis
78d08d7 I will do anything to save Laurana, he swore beneath his breath, clenching his fist. Anything! If it means sacrificing myself or-- He stopped. Would he really give up Berem? Would he really trade the Everman to the Dark Queen, perhaps plunge the world into a darkness so vast it would never see light again? No, Tanis told himself firmly. Laurana would die before she would be part of such a bargain. sacrifice fantasy dragonlance-chronicles dragons-of-spring-dawning green-gemstone-man laurana margaret-weis tanis the-evermen tracy-hickman dragonlance price Margaret Weis
feffc6a We often live as if our happiness depended on having. But I don't know anyone who is really happy because of what he or she has. True joy, happiness, and inner peace come from the giving of ourselves to others. A happy life is a life for others. That truth, however, is usually discovered when we are confronted with our brokenness. sacrifice happiness humility peace Henri J.M. Nouwen
5c602dd The writer has to die to give birth to the intellectual in the service of the wretched of the earth. writing-life sacrifice altruism birth-and-rebirth french-authors french-biographers french-biographies french-resistance intellectual-theories public-intellectuals service-to-mankind women-biographers ideologies biography jean-paul-sartre Annie Cohen-Solal
8bab168 I gave him everything from my lunches I hate, which is called Charity. sacrifice David James Duncan
88e2ec0 He became...the ideal of that virtue which delights in its own work...doing everything with simplicity and dignity, for he seemed to realize that his objective added nobility to everything he did. sacrifice work diligence devotion Honoré de Balzac
1bdc043 "Believe me, it is quite unnecessary! I neither know nor care what it cost to redeem Lufra--and if you badger me on this very boring matter I shall not invite you to go with me when I try out my new team!" There was a moment's tense silence; then Jessamy raised his eyes, no longer glowing, but uncomfortably austere. "Very well, sir," he said quietly. "Will you tell me, if you please, what I owe you?" "No, young Stiff-rump! I will not!" sacrifice jessamy lufra cute Georgette Heyer
1ca748a In the presence of Esch, values have hidden their faces. Order, loyalty, sacrifice--he cherishes all these words, but exactly what do they represent? Sacrifice for what? Demand what sort of order? He doesn't know. If a value has lost its concrete content, what is left of it? A mere empty form; an imperative that goes unheeded and, all the more furious, demands to be heard and obeyed. The less Esch knows what he wants, the more furiously he wants it. Esch: the fanaticism of the era with no God. Because all values have hidden their faces, anything can be considered a value. Justice, order--Esch seeks them now in the trade union struggle, then in religion; today in police power, tomorrow in the mirage of America, where he dreams of emigrating. He could be a terrorist or a repentant terrorist turning in his comrades, or a party militant or a cult member a kamikaze prepared to sacrifice his life. All the passions rampaging through the bloody history of our time are taken up, unmasked, and terrifyingly displayed in Esch's modest adventure. sacrifice esch sleepwalkers imperative broch cult post-modern modern certainty purpose-of-life order symbolic existentialism fanaticism novel values loyalty Milan Kundera
aaf369e Drizzt looked long and hard at the young woman, tje dedicated warrior, and he understood that Danica, too, had been forced into a great sacrifice because of Cadderly's choice. He sensed an anger within her, but it was buried deep. overwhelmed by her love for this man and her admiration for his sacrifice. Catti-brie didn't miss any of it. She, who had lost her love, surely empathized with Danica, and yet, she knew that the woman was undeserving of any sympathy. In those few sentences of explanation, in the presence of Cadderly and of Danica, and within the halls of this most reverent of structures, Catti-broe understood that to give sympathy to Danica would belittle the sacrifice, would diminish what Cadderly had accomplished in exchange for his years. sacrifice love R.A. Salvatore
bdc4051 "We are as the dead," Sha said. "Our purpose is to dedicate our lives to the service of our lord. And, when it is necessary, to surrender those lives. When we become what we are, we lose our lives - our names, our family, our homes, and our honour. All that remains is our lord." sacrifice service honour Jim Butcher
96b2e45 Life is sacrifice and risk taking, and nothing that doesn't entail some moderate amount of the former, under the constraint of satisfying the latter, is close to what we can call life. If you do not undertake a risk of real harm, reparable or even potentially irreparable, from an adventure, it is not an adventure. risk sacrifice life risk-taking harm Nassim Nicholas Taleb
349cf3d "It's true, I guess, that no matter how much it sucks, you're supposed to sacrifice things for a friend. It was a concept that he hadn't understood earlier on in his life. In elementary school, Bernie had been assigned 'Charlotte's Web' to read, and he'd always found it selfish how Charlotte the spider gave everything she had to Wilbur the pig, all her time and energy trying to keep this pig alive and off the farmer's dinner plate, only to end up dying in the wispy remains of her last cobweb. "That pig was a selfish bastard who whined too much." He hadn't understood why, in his college days watching 'The Smurfs' cartoon on TV just to pass the time, the evil wizard Gargamel had kept his bratty little apprentice, Scruple, around with him even when there was no incentive to do it and it would have been more convenient to just get rid of him. "Well, you give and you give and you give, you sacrifice things for somebody even when you normally wouldn't, but you get back something worth having, maybe. Something worth all that sacrifice... I mean, what's life worth if you have nobody to share it with, anyway?" sacrifice friendship love pop-culture-reference smurfs pop-culture sharing friend Rebecca McNutt
5759825 "This is George, my beloved George. D'you think I want to go to my grave knowing that at the moment of his trial he looked around and saw no one lift a finger for him? If it is the death of me, I shall go to him." "Go then," he said. "Kiss our baby good-bye before you go, and Henry. I shall tell Catherine that you left your blessing for her. And kiss me farewell. For if you go into that courtroom you will never come out alive." sacrifice love Philippa Gregory
afa2f60 As usual, he saves his wife's for last. He leans on the cane and he looks at the headstone and he thinks about many things. Taffy. He thinks about taffy. He thinks it would take his teeth out now, but he would eat it anyhow, if it meant eating it with her. headstone taffy widower humour sacrifice death love graveyard memory teeth Mitch Albom
60a00b3 It doesn't do to sacrifice for people unless they want you to. sacrifice sacrifice-for-others important-things Larry McMurtry
a31f838 "He is my brother," I said. "I cannot desert him." "You can go to your own death," William said. "Or you can survive this, bring up your children, and guard Anne's little girl who will be shamed and bastardized and motherless by the end of this week. You can wait out this reign and see what comes next. See what the future holds for the Princess Elizabeth, defend our son Henry against those who will want to set him up as the king's heir or even worse-flaunt him as a pretender. You owe it to your children to protect them." future sacrifice love Philippa Gregory
8550f41 We can only go to the limits of ourselves--I've learned that if nothing else. Anything more and we give too much away. Then we're not good for anyone. - Beryl Markham understanding sacrifice self-awareness Paula McLain
9fb04c9 If we presuppose that Jesus and God are one--as many (but not all) Christians do--then we can also infer that Jesus Christ was omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-benevolent, and it is with this that the idea of sacrifice is lost. The martyrdom was premeditated on the part of the Creator, and Jesus was resurrected afterward--showing that the act of 'death' was not an inconvenience for the immortal 'man' who was said to have known that he would be resurrected. jesus sacrifice glitch omnipotent resurrection knowledge David G. McAfee
787a825 Your father... doesn't work late for you to pinch his dinner. gratitude sacrifice father Susan Cooper
c62c941 [I]n the years that followed the persecutions, Christianity came to see itself, with great pride, as a persecuted Church. Its greatest heroes were not those who did good deeds but those who died in the most painful way. If you were willing to die an excruciating end in the arena then, whatever your previous holiness or lack thereof, you went straight to heaven: martyrdom wiped out all sins on the point of death. As well as getting there faster, martyrs enjoyed preferential terms in paradise, getting to wear the much-desired martyr's crown. Tempting celestial terms were offered: it was said that the scripture promised 'multiplication, even to a hundred times, of brothers, children, parents, land and homes'. Precisely how this celestial sum had been calculated is not clear but the general principle was: those who died early, publicly and painfully would be best rewarded. In many of the martyr tales the driving force is less that the Romans want to kill - and more that the Christians want to die. Why wouldn't they? Paradoxically, martyrdom held considerable benefits for those willing to take it on. One was its egalitarian entry qualifications. As George Bernard Shaw acidly observed over a millennium later, martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability. More than that, in a socially and sexually unequal era it was a way in which women and even slaves might shine. Unlike most positions of power in the highly socially stratified late Roman Empire, this was a glory that was open to all, regardless of rank, education, wealth or sex. The sociologist Rodney Stark has pointed out that - provided you believe in its promised rewards - martyrdom is a perfectly rational choice. A martyr could begin the day of their death as one of the lowliest people in the empire and end it as one of the most exalted in heaven. So tempting were these rewards that pious Christians born outside times of persecution were wont to express disappointment at being denied the opportunity of an agonizing death. When the later Emperor Julian pointedly avoided executing Christians in his reign, one Christian writer far from being grateful, sourly recorded that Julian had 'begrudged the honour of martyrdom to our combatants'. madness equality christianity sacrifice monotheism martyrdom Catherine Nixey
baaaa72 That had day changed him. It had changed the entire village. Shaken by the death of a boy they had loved, each person found ways to be more worthy of the sacrifice he had made. They had become kinder, more careful, more attentive to one another. grief kindness sacrifice death redemption Lois Lowry
195b094 The maitrakh met her gaze steadily, her alien face unreadable. 'Are you offering me your help?' Leia asked. 'There is honor in you, Lady Vader,' the maitrakh said, her voice quiet. 'For the life and honor of my thirdson, I will go with you. Perhaps we will die together.' Leia nodded, her heart aching. 'Perhaps we will. sacrifice princess-leia star-wars honor Timothy Zahn
a8aed09 "Artemis let her head fall back, her eyes closed, her lips suddenly trembling. Apollo dying. "Please. Please, Maximus. I'll refrain from provoking you anymore. I'll stay in the shadows with my stockings and shoes on and never swim in your pond again, never disturb you again, only please do this one thing, I beg you. Save my brother." -- sacrifice love siblings Elizabeth Hoyt
5788489 When Peter renounced the world he grew up in and the people he grew up with, I believe it was exactly as heroic as that of a person who, finding himself prone to violent seasickness, renounces yachting. Hell, Pete was hardly 'in the world' in the first place. That was just the problem. He knew more about 13th century Sufi Orders and the Ptolemaic Universe than the rivers and hills and sewers and mills in southwestern Washington. sacrifice David James Duncan
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