Were the happiness of the next world as closely apprehended as the felicities of this, it were a martyrdom to live.

-Browne, SirThomas
  Hydriotaphia (Urn Burial), ch.4.

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Quoted in  James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.4.

Martyrdom†the only way in which a man can become famous without ability.

-Shaw, George Bernard
  The Devil's Disciple, act 3.