Viper Wingfeather

“Cowards live for the sake of living, for but for heroes, life is a weapon, a thing to be spent, a gift to be given to the weak and the lost and the weary, even to the foolish and the cowardly ... When mothers lay down their lives for children, when brothers die for sisters and sisters for brothers, when fathers die for wives and children, when heroes die for strangers on the street, they do not pour our their blood because the one they save deserves such a sacrifice. Nah, lah. Love burns hotter than justice, and its roar is thunder. Beside love, even wrath whispers. Not one of us snatching breath with mortal lungs deserves such a gift, and yet every day such a gift is given. To love is to be selfless. To be selfless is to be fearless. To be fearless is to strip your enemies of their greatest weapon. Even if they break our bodies and drain our blood, we are unvanquished. Our goal was never to live; our goal is to love. It is the goal of all truly noble men and women. Give even your life itself. ... There is only one Rupert Greeves, Cyrus Smith, and many undeserving fools who need him. He walks the boneyard path, following in the steps of the one Mortal from whom even the Reaper fled in fear. That path runs between headstones, down through the lightless cold of lonely loss, through the dark valleys where death was borne down to the black soul river and the final battle line. Only love can set a man's feet on such a path. Only love can see him through, into rest and the hot light of the sun.”
― N. D. Wilson