No principle is worth the sacrifice of a single human being.
Daniel BerriganRead
The death of a single human being is too heavy a price for the vindication of any principle, however sacred.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The loss of one life is too great a cost for justifying any principle, no matter how important.
This quote emphasizes the inherent value of human life and suggests that no ideology or principle is worth the cost of death. It reflects a moral stance against justifying violence or sacrifices in the name of beliefs, advocating for the sanctity of life above all else.
Themes
Human LifePrincipleSacrificeMoralityValue
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate on the morality of war, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of valuing human life.
More from Daniel Berrigan
All quotes βInstead of building the peace by attacking injustices like starvation, disease, illiteracy, political and economic servitude, we spend a trillion dollars on war since 1946, until hatred and conflict have become the international preoccupation.
Daniel BerriganRead
Of course, let us have peace, we cry, "but at the same time let us have normalcy, let us lose nothing, let our lives stand intact, let us know neither prison nor ill repute nor disruption of ties ... " There is no peace because there are no peacemakers. There are no makers of peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison, and death in its wake.
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The God of life summons us to life; more, to be lifegivers, especially toward those who lie under the heel of the powers.
Daniel BerriganRead
For my part, I believe that the vain, glorious and the violent will not inherit the earth. . . . In pursuance of that faith my friends and I take the hands of the dying in our hands. And some of us travel to the Pentagon, and others live in the Bowery and serve there, and others speak unpopularly and plainly of the fate of the unborn and of convicted criminals. It is all one.
Daniel BerriganRead
Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even.
Daniel BerriganRead
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