“What good is a martyr, Captain Bastable? A martyr shows us the power of faith. But what if that faith is misinformed? While people believe in heroes and the magic power of an individual to save them from the human condition, they will never be free.”

The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), XI : The Practical Problem
Context: My conduct must be the best proof, the moral proof, of my supreme desire; and if I do not end by convincing myself, within the bounds of the ultimate and irremediable uncertainty of the truth of what I hope for, it is because my conduct is not sufficiently pure. Virtue, therefore, is not based upon dogma, but dogma upon virtue, and it is not faith that creates martyrs but martyrs who create faith. There is no security or repose — so far as security and repose are obtainable in this life, so essentially insecure and unreposeful — save in conduct that is passionately good.

Volume II, chapter IV, section 103.
The Stones of Venice (1853)

Source: The City in the Autumn Stars (1986), Chapter 19 (p. 446)

New Fragments (1892), p. 6

Source: The Amber Spyglass

1920s, The Prospects of Industrial Civilization (1923)

Source: Steelheart

Time and Individuality (1940)

Source: Community And Growth