Related:

• MARTYR, n. One who moves along the line of least reluctance to a desired death.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• A hero is a man who consistently violates the law of conservation of energy. -- Solomon Sho
• He had by now divested himself of schoolboy attitudes.
  He was unburdened by the desire to be a martyr or a hero....
• Soldiers who wish to be a hero Are practically zero, But those who wish to be civilians, They run into the millions.
• The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.
  Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don't know when it's through if you are a crook or a martyr....
• It is the cause, not the death, that makes the martyr. Napoleon Bonaparte