All my laurels you have riven away, and my roses; yet in spite of you, there is one crown I bear away with me... One thing without stain, unspotted from the world, in spite of doom mine own! And that is... my white plume.
Edmond RostandTo joke in the face of danger is the supreme politeness, a delicate refusal to cast oneself as a tragic hero.
Edmond Rostand