Martyred Quotes

• The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Death, Tyrants, Political

  Soren Kierkegaard (2015). “Papers and Journals”, p.370, Penguin UK

  34 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  Suffering, Belief, Appetite

  Emile M. Cioran (1975). “A short history of decay”, Viking Books

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is truer to say that martyrs create faith more than faith creates martyrs.

  Miguel de Unamuno

  Faith, Martyr

  9 Copy quote

• No man dies for what he knows to be true. Men die for what they want to be true, for what some terror in their hearts tells them is not true.

  Oscar Wilde

  Heart, Men, Atheism

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.219, University of Chicago Press

  35 Copy quote

  Show source

• The way of the world is, to praise dead saints, and persecute living ones.

  Nathanael Howe

  Saint, World, Way

  7 Copy quote

• We, who are the living, possess the past. Tomorrow is for our martyrs.

  James L. Farmer, Jr.

  Past, Civil Rights, Tomorrow

  25 Copy quote

• Martyrdom does not end something, it only a beginning.

  Indira Gandhi

  Reality, Doe, Ends

  Indira Gandhi, Dhiren Mullick (1972). “Indira Speaks on Genocide War and Bangladesh”, Calcutta : Academic Publishers

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• No human beings are more dangerous than those who have suffered for a belief

  Emile M. Cioran

  Belief, Martyr, Dangerous

  8 Copy quote

• The martyr cannot be dishonored. Every lash inflicted is a tongue of fame; every prison a more illustrious abode.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Tongue, Prison, Fame

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.299, Library of America

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is time to get drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of Time, get drunk; get drunk without stopping! On wine, on poetry, or on virtue, as you wish.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Inspirational, Wine, Drunk

  20 Copy quote

• Martyrs, my friend, have to choose between being forgotten, mocked or used. As for being understood - never.

  Albert Camus

  Forgotten, Used, Martyr

  18 Copy quote

• Far from diminishing the appetite for power, suffering exasperates it.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Power, Suffering, Appetite

  Emile M. Cioran (1975). “A short history of decay”, Viking Books

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Great persecutors are recruited among martyrs whose heads haven't been cut off.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Cutting, Martyr, Havens

  7 Copy quote

• It is more difficult, and it calls for higher energies of soul, to live a martyr than to die one.

  Horace Mann

  Soul, Energy, Martyr

  Horace Mann (1872). “Thoughts Selected from the Writings of Horace Mann ...”, p.213

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• Opposition may become sweet to a man when he has christened it persecution.

  George Eliot

  Inspirational, Sweet, Men

  George Eliot (2016). “Complete Works Of George Eliot”, p.258, ShandonPress

  7 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Strength, Wisdom, Veterans Day

  Letter to William Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787

  227 Copy quote

  Show source

• Love is my religion - I could die for it.

  John Keats

  Love, Passion, Romance

  John Keats (1820). “The Complete Works of John Keats”, p.130

  70 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Political, Causes, Christianity

  33 Copy quote

• The torments of martyrdom are probably most keenly felt by the bystanders.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Bystanders, Martyr, Torment

  28 Copy quote

• The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

  Tertullian

  Blood, Church Today, Christianity

  Speech at Christmas Celebration for Members of Inter-religious Organization by Reverend William Goh, www.catholic.sg. December 29, 2016.

  124 Copy quote

  Show source

• The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.

  Nazr Mohammed

  Education, Fear, Military

  11 Copy quote

• Martyrdom has always been a proof of the intensity, never of the correctness of a belief.

  Arthur Schnitzler

  Death, Dying, Liberty

  11 Copy quote

• While I do not suggest that humanity will ever be able to dispense with its martyrs, I cannot avoid the suspicion that with a little more thought and a little less belief their number may be substantially reduced.

  John B. S. Haldane

  Numbers, Humanity, Atheism

  John B. S. Haldane, John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (1945). “Possible Worlds”, p.224, Transaction Publishers

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am as content to die for God's eternal truth on the scaffold as in any other way.

  John Mason Brown

  Way, Martyrdom, Eternal

  12 Copy quote

• The difference between a man who faces death for the sake of an idea and an imitator who goes in search of martyrdom is that whilst the former expresses his idea most fully in death it is the strange feeling of bitterness which comes from failure that the latter really enjoys; the former rejoices in his victory, the latter in his suffering.

  Soren Kierkegaard

  Men, Ideas, Differences

  28 Copy quote