Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
O when may it suffice?
~~W. B. Yeats (1865–1939) “Easter 1916,” lines 57–59, The Variorum Edition of the Poems of W. B. Yeats, ed. Peter Allt and Russell K. Alspach, p. 394 (1957).

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Since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come? No man has power over the wind to contain it so no one has power over the day of his death. As no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
~~The Bible - Ecclesiastes 8:7-8 :: King James Version (KJV)

I believe that man will not merely endure; he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.~William Faulkner (1897-1962), U.S. novelist. From his speech, December 10, 1949, on acceptance of a Nobel Prize in literature.

The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard. ~ Gaylord Nelson

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Only the dead have seen the end of war. – Attributed to Plato

Great woman belong to history and to self sacrifice.
Leigh Hunt 1784-1859, British Poet, Essayist

There's only one effectively redemptive sacrifice, the sacrifice of self-will to make room for the knowledge of God.
Aldous Huxley 1894-1963, British Author

It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.
Arthur Schopenhauer 1788-1860, German Philosopher

~~~~Littera scripta manet~~~ the written word remains. (the saying continues; The weak word perishes)

The innermost meaning of sacrifice is the annihilation of the finite just because it is finite. In order to demonstrate that this is the only purpose, the most noble and beautiful must be chosen; above all, man, the fulfillment of the earth. Human sacrifices are the most natural sacrifices. Man, however, is more than the fulfillment of the earth; he is reasonable, and reason is free and nothing but an eternal self-determination toward the infinite. Thus man can sacrifice only himself, and that is what he does in the omnipresent sanctissimum of which the masses are not aware. All artists are self-sacrificing human beings, and to become an artist is nothing but to devote oneself to the subterranean gods. The meaning of divine creation is primarily revealed in the enthusiasm of annihilation. Only in the throes of death is the spark of eternal life ignited.
-- Friedrich Von Schlegel

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much love, light and laughter,
ananya.