“A hero looks death in the face, real death, not just the image of death.”
Source: Culture and Value (1980), p. 50e
Context: A hero looks death in the face, real death, not just the image of death. Behaving honourably in a crisis doesn't mean being able to act the part of a hero well, as in the theatre, it means being able to look death itself in the eye.
For an actor may play lots of different roles, but at the end of it all he himself, the human being, is the one who has to die.
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Ludwig Wittgenstein 228
Austrian-British philosopher 1889–1951Related quotes
“The death of one man is a just death, the death of two millions is a statistic.”
Aber das ist wohl so, weil ein einzelner immer der Tod ist — und zwei Millionen immer nur eine Statistik.
Der schwarze Obelisk (1956)
A variant of this quote "One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is just a statistic." has also been attributed to Joseph Stalin, but no source for this has been found. This version appeared in the English press not later than 1958. (Ремарк, Эрих Мария // Словарь современных цитат / составитель К. В. Душенко — Москва: изд-во «Эксмо», 2006)
Here, clearly, the old pagan joy of life is gone, and an almost exotic spirit touches a broken lyre. History, which is nothing if not humorous, was never to facetious as when she gave to this abstemious and epic pessimist the name of Epicurean.
The Story of Philosophy (1926)
“Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.”
“The death of one is a tragedy, but death of a million is just a statistic.”
Being from Manson's Fight Song of Holy Wood, this is actually a quote from German writer Erich Maria Remarque, also often misattributed to Josef Stalin.
Misattributed
“Look on me! if canst read the signs of love,
Thou’lt see that death is written in my face.”
Sonetto. (Poeti del Primo Secolo, Firenze, 1816, Vol. I, p. 105).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 407.