Quotes About Sacrifice

Pues conseguimos lo que queríamos. Y cuando vimos qué era lo que queríamos, era demasiado tarde. Estábamos atrapados, sin ningún sitio adonde ir. Los mejores hombres de entre nosotros se fueron de la fábrica la primera semana del plan. Perdimos nuestros mejores ingenieros, superintendentes, capataces y trabajadores especializados. Un hombre que se autorrespeta no se convierte en una vaca lechera para nadie.

But if my love of truth is left as my only possession, then the greater the loss behind me, the greater the pride I may take in the price I have paid for that love.

The man who enslaves himself voluntarily in the name of love is the basest of creatures. He degrades the dignity of man and he degrades the conception of love.

Estamos en huelga contra el martirio y contra el código moral que lo exige, contra quienes creen que uno debe existir sólo para beneficiar a otros y contra esa moral de caníbales, tanto si se practica de un modo material como espiritual.

the proof of an achieved self-esteem is your soul's shudder of contempt and rebellion against the role of a sacrificial animal, against the vile impertinence of any creed that proposes to immolate the irreplaceable value which is your consciousness and the incomparable glory which is your existence

I have no private purpose. I want power. I want my world of the future. Let all live for all. Let all sacrifice and none profit. Let all suffer and none enjoy. Let progress stop. Let all stagnate. There's equality in stagnation. All subjugated to the will of all. Universal slavery—without even the dignity of a master. Slavery to slavery. A great circle—and a total equality. The world of the future.

You yourself told us that in the final analysis we are our own betrayers, playing Judas to our own Christ

I used to joke that we had prepared ourselves for a time like this by living with Mother. The problem with such a state of affairs was not that you did not get to do what you wanted---sometimes you did---but the effort to appease or resist the reigning deities left you so exhausted that it prevented you from ever really having fun. To this day having fun, just plain enjoying myself, comes at the cost of a conviction that I have committed an undetected crime.

This, I was coming to realize, was the nature of the presidency: Sometimes your most important work involved the stuff nobody noticed.

If we aren't willing to pay a price for our values, if we aren't willing to make some sacrifices in order to realize them, then we should ask ourselves whether we truly believe in them at all.

Lincoln, and those buried at Gettysburg, remind us that we should pursue our own absolute truths only if we acknowledge that there may be a terrible price to pay.

I noticed that my mother paid for her intellectual freedom with chronic financial struggles and occasional personal chaos

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

There are things more important," he told me, "than getting reelected.

People missed their children's soccer games and dance recitals. People got home too late to tuck toddlers into bed. Those like Rahm, Axe, and others, who'd decided against putting their families through the disruption of moving to Washington, barely saw their spouses and kids at all.

I remember looking at my calendar and realizing that over a span of a year and a half, I had taken exactly seven days off. The rest of the time I had typically worked twelve to sixteen hours a day.

How many of us are tested in that way, asked to risk careers we've long dreamed of in the service of some greater good?

But it would save somebody's mom out there, somewhere down the line. And that was worth fighting for.

Your father's not allowed to have fun. He has to sit in boring meetings all day." "Poor Daddy

whenever I write a letter to a family who has lost a loved one in Iraq, or read an email from a constituent who has dropped out of college because her student aid has been cut, I'm reminded that the actions of those in power have enormous consequences—a price that they themselves almost never have to pay.

War might be hell and still the right thing to do. Economies could collapse despite the best-laid plans. People could work hard all their lives and still lose everything.

She was one of those quiet heroes that we have all across America," I said. "They're not famous. Their names aren't in the newspapers. But each and every day they work hard. They look after their families. They sacrifice for their children and their grandchildren. They aren't seeking the limelight—all they try to do is just do the right thing.

But I missed my wife. I missed my kids. I missed my bed, a consistent shower, sitting at a proper table for a proper meal. I missed not having to say the exact same thing the exact same way five or six or seven times a day.

She raised their three kids in spite of him, working long hours at a shoe factory until she had a hump in her back from bending over a sewing machine. But still, she's loving, kind, and sober. I don't get it. Ruthie