"[But] the man who dares not expose his life in the defence of his children and his property, has lost in society the first and most active energies of nature."

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The aspiring efforts of genius, or virtue, either in active or speculative life, are measured, not so much by their real elevation, as by the height to which they ascend above the level of their age and country; and the same stature, which in a people of giants would pass unnoticed, must appear conspicuous in a race of pygmies.

— Edward Gibbon