My life now centered around sleepless nights and stand-bys, dodging the Brits and calming nerves to go out on operations. But the people stood by us. The people not only opened the doors of their homes to lend us a hand, but they opened their hearts to us. I learned that without the people, we could not survive and I knew that I owed them everything.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of community support and sacrifice during difficult times.
Bobby Sands reflects on his experiences during hardship, highlighting how the unwavering support from the community played a crucial role in his survival. His acknowledgment of the people's sacrifices underscores the interconnectedness of humanity and the profound impact that solidarity and kindness can have in the face of adversity.
In practice
In a speech on community service, this quote could highlight the importance of helping others.
They won't break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart. The day will dawn when all the people of Ireland will have the desire for freedom to show. It is then that we will see the rising of the moon.
I am dying not just to attempt to end the barbarity of H-blocks or to gain the rightful recognition of political prisoners, but primarily because what is lost here is lost for the Republic.
If a British government experienced such a long and persistent resistance to domestic policy in England, then that policy would almost certainly be changed... We have asserted that we are political prisoners, and everything about out country - our arrests, interrogations, trials, and prison conditions - show that we are politically motivated.
They will not criminalise us, rob us of our true identity, steal our individualism, depoliticise us, churn us out as systemised, institutionalised, decent law-abiding robots. Never will they label our liberation struggle as criminal.
There can never be peace in Ireland until the foreign oppressive British presence is removed, leaving all the Irish people as a unit to control their own affairs and determine their own destinies as a sovereign people, free in mind and body, separate and distinct physically, culturally and economically.
Well, I have gotten by twenty-seven years, so that is something. I may die, but the Republic of 1916 will never die. Onward to the Republic and liberation of our people.
So while I will never minimize the costs involved in military action, I am convinced that a failure to act in Libya would have carried a far greater price for America.
I learned with 'Birdman' that it's liberating when you just lose yourself and go after something that terrifies you.
It's a lose-lose situation to get in a confrontation on the street. If you can break contact and get away, break contact and get away. That's what you should learn self-defense for.
Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.
I wanted my faith to look the same to everyone else and to be the same for me regardless of what was going on - whether I was on the Super Bowl podium holding the trophy or when I was being benched two years later and people saying that I would never play again.
With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost.
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