“The character of those who continually persevere and sacrifice are eventually completely reborn and when they rise from the darkness they ve endured no stone can hold them down. -Rise...Roll Away The Stone”
“How many have died that I might live? And who has died that I might live?”
“[regarding the sacrifice] It was all very professionally done, even to a man whose religion consisted mostly of half formed and unanswered questions, it was strangely reassuring.”
“Sacrifice, sacrifice.”
“The greatest sacrifice a man can make is the image of his soul.”
“The noblest life is the one laid down for another.”
“It’s like this. Terror might make someone kill, but love will make someone die. People die for love. They would give up anything for love, even their life. And don’t you see, that’s a denial of the most basic of all human instincts: survival.”
“If there is something, you want to achieve, think of the way you ll pass, difficulties you ll meet, think of the sacrifice because nothing you can achieve without sacrifice and we ignore what we love so as to get what we want”
“Remember, there s sacrifice invovled in any kind of life. Even the man who chooses the safe way has to give up the thrill of combat. The point is that once you know what you want, you must be prepared to sacrifice everything to get it. Those who realize this are the fortunate ones. Those who know and can try. What more can a man as kfor than that?”
“Elfangor laughed in my mind. You don t have to give up your principles to win. Isn t there always an alternative to sacrifice if you just keep your mind clear, and step back, and see it, and... ”
“When my mother would tell me that she wanted me to have something because she as a child had never had it, I wanted, or I partly wanted, to give it back. All my life I continued to feel that bliss for me would have to imply my mother s deprivation or sacrifice. I don t think it would have occurred to her what a double emotion I felt. I could hardly bear my pleasure for the guilt. There is no wonder that a passion for independence sprang up in me at the earliest age. It took me a long time to manage the independence, (but) I have never managed to handle the guilt. In the act and the course of writing stories, these are the two springs, one bright, one dark, that feed the stream.”
“How great is the love of God! He loved me long before I knew His name. He wooed me, chased me, enthralled me, and captured my heart. He didn’t prove His love at a candlelight dinner. There were no long-stemmed roses, but there were thorns. Yes, there were thorns.”
“We suffer these things and they fade form memory. But daily, hourly, to give up our own possessions and especially to subordinate our own impulses and wishes to to others - these are hard, hard things; and I don t think they ever get any easier. You can strip yourself, you can be stripped, but still you will reach out like an octopus to seek your own comfort, your untroubled time, your ease, your refreshment. It may mean books or music - the gratification of the inner sense - or it may mean food and drink, coffee and cigarettes. The one kind of giving up is no easier than the other.”
“যারা মহৎপ্রাণ, তাঁদের যেকোন অবস্থাতেই, পরের বিপদে নিজের বিপদ মনে থাকে না।”
“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!”
“And for the first time, I pity her, because when she says love, I think she really means it. For her, this is love. This is what she does to someone she loves. And I wonder if I am any better, because this is what I did to Zan all those rotations ago. I seduced her until she loved me with all her heart, and when it came time to do what needed to be done, I was willing to sacrifice that love, but she was not.”
“When we are asked to show our love for God, our desire for him, when he asks us as Jesus asked Peter, Lovest thou me? we have to give proof of it. Lovest thou me more than these, more than any human companionship, more than any human love? It is not filth and ugliness, drugs and drink and perversion he is asking us to prefer him to. He is asking us to prefer him to all beauty and loveliness. To all other love. He is giving us a chance to prove our faith, our hope, our charity. It is as hard and painful as Abraham s ordeal, when he thought he was asked to perform a human sacrifice and immolate his son.”