Henning von Tresckow Quotes

We manifest character when self-sacrifice for the sake of our principles becomes more important than compromise for the sake of popularity.

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.

The time has come for all good men to rise above principle.

But I think I have done right to save the vision in this way, even though I may die sooner because I did it; for I know the meaning of the vision is wise and beautiful and good; and you can see that I am only a pitiful old man after all.

The virtue involved in helping those one loves is not 'selflessness' or 'sacrifice,' but integrity.

Man has his being in truth--if he sacrifices truth he sacrifices himself. Whoever betrays truth betrays himself. It is not a question of lying--but of acting against one's conviction.

Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains, rather than do an immoral act.

Who has not for the sake of his reputation sacrificed himself?

Be willing to die for your beliefs, or computer printouts of your beliefs.

The determined scholar and the man of virtue will not seek to live at the expense of injuring their virtue. They will even sacrifice their lives to preserve their virtue complete.

Your Integrity is more important than your immediate Life.

I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.

Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one.

I don't mind if my future is long or short, as long as I'm doing the right thing. And as long as I behave for other people.

If I have to degrade myself or do something that I'm not willing to do as a Christian to get something, I'm just not willing to do it.

A man has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so.

Fidelity to conscience is inconsistent with retiring modesty. If it be so, let the modesty succumb. It can be only a false modesty which can be thus endangered.

I do what I think is right.

I play guys who are willing to go really far. If the dung really hits the fan, I don't know if I could walk the talk. But anyone who isn't willing to die for his convictions isn't worth living. My characters, no matter how demented they are, they have their convictions.

There is a value in taking a stand whether or not anybody may be noticing it and whether or not it is a risky thing to do.

What is character? It is that quality of man which is going to make a man, in an hour of strain, do the just and, if possible, the generous thing.

I never mind contorting myself for a good cause.

I see the Jedi mission as giving up a normal life in exchange for protecting the innocent. It's a life of sacrifice. There are rewards, but also a certain degree of sterility.

I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.