When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.

A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.

He thought it happier to be dead, To die for Beauty, than live for bread.

Old Zhou Jin began singing a hymn Quan had heard and reluctantly sung many times since childhood: "One day I'll die for the Lord.

The hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.

Always living in the safe zone of life and never taking chances actually makes one a thief and a robber.

If you are willing to give yourself away, you will have a much better life than you ever would have had trying to keep yourself.

The dominant ideology of our culture is committed to continuity and success and to the avoidance of pain, hurt, and loss. The dominant culture is also resistant to genuine newness and real surprise. It is curious but true, that surprise is as unwelcome as is loss. And our culture is organized to prevent the experience of both.

A slave can have life only by giving it away. "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life." (Jesus)

Self-sacrifice is the real miracle out of which all the reported miracles grow.

Yet perhaps no sacrifice is wholly useless which proves there are men who prefer honour to life.

Every selfish man, strangely enough, becomes a self slayer