Yukio Mishima - dignity of life

"We tend to suffer from the illusion that we are capable of dying for a belief or theory. ... that even in merciless death, a futile death that knows neither flower nor fruit has dignity as the death of a human being. If we value so highly the dignity of life, how can we not also value the dignity of death? No death may be called futile." ~Yukio Mishima on Hagakure : The Samurai Ethic and Modern Japan (1977)