The importance of following your convictions with consistent action and with courage if need be. He once told me that there was a monument in a city square in Germany with an inscription that read more or less as follows: if you have lost money, you have lost nothing, for you can get it back with a good business deal.
If you have lost your honour, you have lost much, but you can regain it through a heroic deed. If you have lost courage, however, you have lost everything. You were born in 1947. Were you ever tempted to join the protest movement of 1968?