“Rather, ten times, die in the surf, heralding the way to a new world, than stand idly on the shore.”

Mere Anarchy (2007)

Commencement ceremony http://piermarton.info/elie-wiesel-do-not-stand-idly-by-if-you-witness-injustice/ (Class of 2011) at Washington University in St. Louis.
Context: The greatest commandment to me in the Bible is not the Ten Commandments. (First of all, it’s too difficult to observe; second, we all pretend to observe.) My commandment is ‘Thou shall not stand idly by.’ Which means, when you witness an injustice: Don’t stand idly by. When you hear of a person or a group being persecuted: Do not stand idly by. When there is something wrong with the community around you or far away: Do not stand idly by. You must intervene. You must interfere. And that is actually the motto of human rights.

Opining on Twitter, as quoted in * 2020-03-09
J.D. Simkins
Military Times
Congressman, a former dentist, says he’d ‘rather die gloriously in battle than from’ coronavirus.
Source: https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2020/03/09/congressman-a-former-dentist-says-hed-rather-die-gloriously-in-battle-than-from-coronavirus/

Source: Tonio Kröger (1903), Ch. 9, as translated by Bayard Quincy Morgan
Context: I stand between two worlds, am at home in neither, and in consequence have rather a hard time of it. You artists call me a commoner, and commoners feel tempted to arrest me … I do not know which wounds me more bitterly. Commoners are stupid; but you worshippers of beauty who call me phlegmatic and without yearning, ought to reflect that there is an artistry so deep, so primordial and elemental, that no yearning seems to it sweeter and more worthy of tasting than that for the raptures of common-placeness.

Act I, scene iv.
Cato, A Tragedy (1713)

Source: A Theory of Justice (1971; 1975; 1999), Chapter IV, Section 35, p. 218