Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
But let us set aside these examples of resolve that come from mere showing-off. Let us turn instead to a plain look at the human condition itself, so that it, too, may instruct us — if there is anything that must be faced with steadiness, something that has a habit of happening even to the unwilling. How often has fire burned people alive! How often have wild beasts, slipping loose both in their own forests and in the middle of cities, devoured men out of their cages! How many have been finished off by the sword of bandits, or by the cross at the hands of enemies — first tortured, indeed, and stripped of every last shred of dignity!
There is no one who cannot also suffer for a mere man's sake, when he hesitates to suffer for God's. Let even the present age stand as proof enough of this to us: how many people of what rank, contrary to every expectation of their birth, their standing, their bodies, their years, meet unlooked-for ends for a man's sake — either at that man's own hand, if they have acted against him, or at his enemies' hands, if they have stood by him.