Martyr Quotes

“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”
― Oscar Wilde

“The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.”
― Soren Kierkegaard, The Journals of Kierkegaard

“The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr.”
― Anonymous, القرآن الكريم

“It is often argued that religion is valuable because it makes men good, but even if this were true it would not be a proof that religion is true. That would be an extension of pragmatism beyond endurance. Santa Claus makes children good in precisely the same way, and yet no one would argue seriously that the fact proves his existence. The defense of religion is full of such logical imbecilities. The theologians, taking one with another, are adept logicians, but every now and then they have to resort to sophistries so obvious that their whole case takes on an air of the ridiculous. Even the most logical religion starts out with patently false assumptions. It is often argued in support of this or that one that men are so devoted to it that they are willing to die for it. That, of course, is as silly as the Santa Claus proof. Other men are just as devoted to manifestly false religions, and just as willing to die for them. Every theologian spends a large part of his time and energy trying to prove that religions for which multitudes of honest men have fought and died are false, wicked, and against God.”
― H.L. Mencken, Minority Report

“Heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives! You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”
― Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

“Maybe you who condemn me are in greater fear than I who am condemned.”
― Giordano Bruno

“One to be a murderer, the other to be martyred, One to be a monarch, the other to go mad.”
― Marissa Meyer, Heartless

“Being a martyr is highly overrated. ”
― Patricia Briggs, Dragon Bones

“Oh Lion in a peculiar guise,
Sharp Roman road to Paradise,
Come eat me up, I'll pay thy toll
With all my flesh, and keep my soul.”
― Stevie Smith, Modern Classics Selected Poems Of Stevie Smith

“So the question becomes, If you are ever faced with this choice are you willing to die for what you believe in? For that is the only way you will deny him. [...] It's a difficult question and not one you can answer until you're faced with it. Keep in mind that many people have died for their beliefs; it's actually quite common. The real courage is in living and suffering for what you believe.”
― Christopher Paolini, Eragon

“أي قتيل في سبيل شيئ فوق نفسه فهو شهيد، وقد تتغير قيم الأشياء أما موقف الإنسان منها فهو قيمة لا تتغير.”
― نجيب محفوظ, Sugar Street

“Adolf Hitler was a Jeanne d'Arc, a saint. He was a martyr.”
― Ezra Pound

“Dreamers like your wife are limited, little Helldiver.” She makes sure I don’t speak.
“Understand that. The only power they have is in death. The harder they die, the louder
their voice, the deeper the echoes. But your wife served her purpose.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“The fearful danger of the present time is that above the cry for authority, we forget that man stands alone before the ultimate authority, and that anyone who lays violent hands on man here, is infringing eternal laws, and taking upon himself superhuman authority, which will eventually crush him.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Saintliness is very odd. When people encounter it, they often take it for something else, something completely unlike it: indifference, mockery, scheming, coldness, insolence, perhaps even contempt. But they're mistaken, and that makes them furious. They commit an awful crime. This is doubtless the reason why most saints end up as martyrs.”
― Philippe Claudel, Brodeck

“I actually believed that after living as fully as humanly possible, one should then die violently. I expected then as I still expect today”
― Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

“If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself—
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up
above
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love
If I must die
let it bring hope
let it be a tale”
― Refaat Alareer

“This guilt is a joke, and it’s exhausting to watch you martyr yourself.”
― Ann Aguirre, Aftermath

“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

“Ashlei was free to spout off how much she loved her savior because Jesus was not about to rear back and tell her He did not quite feel the same way, that He had died for the sins of the world just because it was fun and did not want things to be too serious. He was only thirty-three, after all, and might want to martyr himself for other people.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, Danse Macabre (Night's Dream, #2)

“I could kill you right now.”
“What would that change?” he asked. “Both of us dead?”
― Kailey Bright, Unity

“When lovers say of some act that we might blame, "Love made us do it," notice the tone. A man saying, "I did it because I was frightened," or "I did it because I was angry," speaks quite differently. He is putting forward an excuse for what he feels to require excusing. But the lovers are seldom doing quite that. Notice how tremulously, almost how devoutly, they say the word love, not so much pleading an "extenuating circumstance" as appealing to an authority. The confession can be almost a Boast. There can be a shade of defiance in it. They "feel like martyrs". In extreme cases what their words really express is a demure yet unshakable allegiance to the god of love.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

“Amidst the sea of joy-seeking juveniles,
Be the one anomaly that feasts on pain.
Seek out the pain among those around,
Rush down to heal like monsoon rain.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Yüz Şiirlerin Yüzüğü (Ring of 100 Poems, Bilingual Edition): 100 Turkish Poems with Translations

“I'm drunk with the spirit of sacrifice,
You can keep your puny bottled charisma.
In a world of broken glass and
cigarette buds, I am Amor Armada.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Abigitano: El Divino Refugiado

“Homecoming Sonnet

Salutations to all, today is my homecoming,
To dwell in grief is treachery on life.
I sought plenty escape in translations,
but true ointment lies in the soil of life.

So I return, shattering shackles of sorrow -
Reignite me oh life, resuscitate me unto duty!
I want no more to sob through the alleys of pity -
Sanctify me oh divine nature, with renewed tenacity.

Today I break all spell of ominous cowardice,
Today I vivify my veins as the volcanic vanguard!
I refuse to be castrated by pathetic redundancy,
Today I revive my vows as defender of the world!”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“Nationalism manufactures more widows and orphans than disease and disaster.”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars; martyrs have put on their coronation robes glittering with fire; and through their tears have the sorrowful first seen the gate of heaven. - quoted on page 567 of Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)”
― Edwin Hubbell Chapin

“Matters not if I die today,
My legacy will guard all tomorrow.
No matter if one Naskar is perished,
Thousands will rise to be world's marrow.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Divine Refugee

“My soldiers are my gift to cosmos,
archaic narrowness is no match for them.
I got martyred in the making of a life,
to shine as beacon for generations to come.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Divine Refugee

“Forget about afterlife, focus on afterlight, light that is left behind, by your deeds of life.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Humanitarian Dictator