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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: you are all brave, parbleu! we know well that you all have in your
souls the joy and the glory of giving your life for the great cause;
we know well that you feel yourselves elected to die usefully
and magnificently, and that each one of you clings to his share
in the triumph. Very well. But you are not alone in this world.
There are other beings of whom you must think. You must not be
egoists."
All dropped their heads with a gloomy air.
Strange contradictions of the human heart at its most
sublime moments. Combeferre, who spoke thus, was not an orphan.
He recalled the mothers of other men, and forgot his own.
Les Miserables | 
