Damage

The real damage is done by those millions who want to 'survive.' The
honest men who just want to be left in peace.

Those who don't want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than
themselves.

Those with no sides and no causes.

Those who won't take measure of their own strength, for fear of
antagonizing their own weakness.

Those who don't like to make waves or enemies.

Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature.

Those who live small, mate small, die small.

It's the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you'll keep
it under control. If you don't make any noise, the bogeyman won't find
you. But it's all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll
up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe.

Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow
streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle
burns itself out just like a flaming torch does.

I choose my own way to burn.

• Sophie Scholl, member of the resistance group The White Rose
Society, who disseminated information against Hitler's propaganda