Martyrdom

Martyrdom, as a rule, establishes the sincerity of the martyr, -- never the correctness of his thought.  Things are true or false in themselves.  Truth cannot be affected by opinions; it cannot be changed, established, or affected by martyrdom.  An error cannot be believed sincerely enough to make it a truth.

-- Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899), lawyer, Civil War veteran political leader and orator, The Great Infidels (1881)