Love makes the whole
Love makes the whole difference between an execution and a martyrdom. Evelyn Underhill
Martyrdom
Give people pride and
Give people pride and they’ll live on bread and water, bless their exploiters, and even die for them. Self-surrender is a transaction of barter: we surrender our sense of human dignity, our judgement, or moral and aesthetic sense for pride. If there is pride in being free, we are ready to die for liberty. If … Read more
My grandmother always acted
My grandmother always acted in other people’s interests, whether they wanted her to or not. If they’d had an Olympics in martyrdom my grandmother would have lost on purpose. Emily Levine
Great persecutors are recruited
Great persecutors are recruited among martyrs whose heads haven’t been cut off. Emile M. Cioran
No human beings are
No human beings are more dangerous than those who have suffered for a belief Emile M. Cioran
No human beings more
No human beings more dangerous than those who have suffered for a belief: the great persecutors are recruited from the martyrs not quite beheaded. Far from diminishing the appetite for power, suffering exasperates it. Emile M. Cioran
And why does it
And why does it make you sad to see how everything hangs by such thin and whimsical threads? Because you’re a dreamer, an incredible dreamer, with a tiny spark hidden somewhere inside you which cannot die, which even you cannot kill or quench and which tortures you horribly because all the odds are against its … Read more
There are daily martyrdoms
There are daily martyrdoms occurring of more or less self-abnegation, and of which the world knows nothing. Edwin Hubbel Chapin
Christianity has made martyrdom
Christianity has made martyrdom sublime, and sorrow triumphant. Edwin Hubbel Chapin
The most dangerous of
The most dangerous of devotions, in my opinion, is the one endemic to Christianity: I was not born to be of this world. With a second life waiting, suffering can be endured – especially in other people. The natural environment can be used up. Enemies of the faith can be savaged and suicidal martyrdom praised. … Read more