Sacrifice quotes

Self-Help, Chapter IX, “Men of Business,” Project Gutenberg #935. The line appears in the chapter’s discussion of honesty in business: Smiles argues that even temporary material loss is preferable to sacrificing character, which he describes as a fortune in itself.

Thrift, Preface; original Preface dated London, November 1875, verified in Project Gutenberg #14418’s represented John Murray Fiftieth Thousand witness (London, 1892). “The essence of generosity is self-sacrifice” immediately follows Smiles’s claim that justice and generosity require self-denial. This collection preserves the Victorian ethical argument rather than treating the maxim as a complete modern definition of generosity.

As a Man Thinketh, “Achievement”; this is the middle clause of Allen’s three-part conclusion.

The Woman’s Bible, Stanton commentary; the line appears in her critique of idealizing women’s self-sacrifice and is preserved in the Project Gutenberg text.

Thrift, Chapter II, “Habits of Thrift,” Project Gutenberg #14418. Smiles says thrift requires neither exceptional courage nor intellect but ordinary common sense, resistance to selfish enjoyment and patient self-denial.

As a Man Thinketh, chapter “The Thought-Factor in Achievement.”

The Power of Truth, opening chapter, Project Gutenberg #56020; Jordan contrasts truthful dealing with deliberately creating a false impression.

“Barbara Frietchie,” represented in Project Gutenberg #9578, Poems in Wartime. The words are dramatized speech inside Whittier’s Civil War poem. Whittier later noted that the received story was probably incorrect in some details, so this record does not present the sentence as a verified historical transcript.

Thrift, Chapter I, “Industry,” Project Gutenberg #14418. After describing thrift as learned rather than instinctive, Smiles defines it as an acquired principle of conduct involving self-denial, reason, forethought and prudence.

John 15:13 in the King James Version.

Jo's Boys, Chapter 4, Project Gutenberg #3499. Mrs Jo is speaking to Dan about his mother's effort to protect him from harmful influences.

Apology, Jowett translation; Socrates rejects saving himself through a style of pleading he considers unworthy.

Hebrews 13:16 in the King James Version, among practical closing instructions about conduct and mutual care.

Walden, “Economy”; wording lightly normalized from the surrounding sentence.

Admetus, published in Admetus and Other Poems (1871) and represented by Project Gutenberg #3295. Alcestis speaks while challenging those unwilling to sacrifice themselves for Admetus. The excerpt stops before the poem’s explicit self-sacrificial conclusion and is preserved as classical-myth character speech, not an endorsement of self-harm or Lazarus autobiography.

Thrift, Preface; original Preface dated London, November 1875, verified in Project Gutenberg #14418’s represented John Murray Fiftieth Thousand witness (London, 1892). Smiles links personal independence with forethought, prudence, frugality and self-denial while explaining the practical purpose of the book; the sentence is historical moral-economic counsel, not a guarantee that saving practices alone establish modern financial independence.

The Essays of George Eliot, essay VII, ‘Worldliness and Other-Worldliness: The Poet Young,’ around printed page 247, Project Gutenberg #28289. The frozen quote is a clause extracted from Eliot's longer enumeration of virtues grounded in human sympathy—neighbor's rights, participation in others' joys and sorrows, and accepting privation when it benefits others—inside her argument that such morality need not depend directly on belief in a future state. It remains Victorian literary/theological criticism rather than a complete empirical theory of altruism.

The Mill on the Floss, Book IV, Project Gutenberg #6688. Narrator commentary on Mrs Tulliver's work for Maggie; the period gender context remains part of the scene.

Jane Eyre, Chapter XXVII, Project Gutenberg #1260. Jane answers the pressure to remain with Rochester by saying she cares for herself and will respect herself more when friendless and unsupported, then explicitly invokes law, principles and temptation. It is fictional first-person moral reasoning under dramatic pressure, not Charlotte Brontë autobiography or universal relationship advice.

The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter V; Project Gutenberg #3300. This belongs to Smith’s labour-command discussion of real and nominal price.

Dhammapada 166, Chapter XII “Self,” Max Müller translation; the teaching closes the chapter by returning attention to one’s own discerned duty.

Character Building, “Have You Done Your Best?”, Project Gutenberg #60484. The question is addressed to Tuskegee students reflecting on family sacrifice and their school work.