Quotes About Sacrifice

Ik was de onbaatzuchtigste, de meest toegewijde van haar minnaars en gelegenheidsvriendjes. De opofferingsgezinde, gezeglijke sukkel.

La vocación literaria no es un pasatiempo, un deporte, un juego refinado que se practica en los ratos de ocio. Es una dedicación exclusiva y excluyente, una prioridad a la que nada puede anteponerse, una servidumbre libremente elegida que hace de sus víctimas (de sus dichosas victimas) unos esclavos.

Waag het niet ooit van je leven nog eens naar Newmarket te bellen,' voer ze tegen me uit, knarsetandend van boosheid. 'Dit is geen grapje. Ik heb een heel ernstig probleem met mijn man. Jij en ik mogen elkaar een tijdje niet zien of spreken. Alsjeblieft. Ik smeek het je. Als je echt van me houdt, doe dat dan voor me. (...) Maar bel me nooit meer op. Ik zit in de puree en ik moet erg uitkijken.

Martyrdom is something a Christian resigns himself to, not an end he seeks out.

Había oído y leído que la política, como todo lo que se vincula al poder, saca a veces a la luz lo mejor del ser humano —el idealismo, el heroísmo, el sacrificio, la generosidad—, pero, también, lo peor, la crueldad, la envidia, el resentimiento, la soberbia.

Esas gentes que se inmolan por la verdad o la justicia a menudo hacen más daño del que quieren remediar.

Hicieron, entonces, lo único que podían hacer, con heroísmo, sí, pero sin violentar los mil y un tabúes y preceptos que regulaban su existencia: dejarse matar.

the deepest secrets about ourselves that we, in the ultimate act of humanity, will spare those we truly love.

Everything I have learned about love, I learned from my mother. For it is mothers who bend, twist, flex, and break most dramatically before our uninitiated eyes. Fathers bear, conceal, inflict, sometimes vanish, so the mythology of domestic union tells us. But mothers absorb, accept, give in, all to tutor daughters in the syntax, the grammar of yearning and love.

To die a martyr is to inject blood into the veins of society

Despite the doctor's orders, I bought myself several cartons of cigarettes (…) I think that I preferred to put myself in serious danger rather than confront my shame. My shame at not having become someone, the shame of not having made my parents proud after all the sacrifices they had made for me. The shame of having become a mediocre nihilist.

Preferiría que estuviera vivo y encarcelado que muerto como un héroe

La libertà ha sempre un prezzo.

500 turmans for the live and virginity of an innocent girl.

The Key to Paradise was for poor people. Thousands of young kids, promised a better life, exploded on the minefields with their keys around their necks.

the gospel is never about seeking our own comfort

The gospel is never about seeking our own comfort, and it always drives the local church out to do more for God in the world.

Self-sacrifice is a hallmark of healthy church life.

The gospel costs nothing. We cannot buy it or earn it. It can only be received as a free gift, compliments of God's grace. So it costs nothing, but it demands everything. And that is where most of us get stuck — spiritual no-man's-land. We're too Christian to enjoy sin and too sinful to enjoy Christ. We've got just enough Jesus to be informed, but not enough to be transformed.

When he got back to Phu Bai, one of the walking wounded, he was ordered to look through nearly a hundred body bags and identify those he recognized. It took him two days to complete the job, unzipping the bags and looking at the pale, lifeless faces.

What mattered in combat, what really mattered, was not only understanding why you asked men to risk their lives, but making them understand. Men would willingly risk their lives, but they needed to know that it counted. And they needed to know they had a chance.

Man, God really does love medics.

Nearly everyone had a father or uncles who had fought in World War II or Korea, or both, and many had grandfathers who had fought in World War I. War was stitched deep in the idea of manhood.

the entire rationale for fighting in Vietnam was rooted in faith. Faith that his elected leaders and military bosses knew what they were doing and that the calculation that had placed his life at such peril mattered, that it did more than just make sense but demanded his suffering and sacrifice.