"Life is not a firework to be let off at the end of a party."

This quote jumped out at me recently - partly on its own merits but partly because of the context in which it was said.  I encountered it in The Battle For Spain by Antony Beevor, a good history of the Spanish Civil War which I am still reading and enjoying.  These words were spoken by José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the lawyer, nobleman and politician who founded the Falange party.  In March of 1936, during the tensions before the war broke out, the Falange was outlawed by the Republican government.  José Antonio was immediately arrested on charges of illegal arms possession.  After the uprising that started the war, he was still in enemy custody.  He was put on trial in November along with his brother Miguel and sister-in-law Margarita Larios.  Conducting his own defense, he did not stoop to plead for his own life, but did make a successful appeal for leniency on behalf of his brother and sister-and-law.  It was in this context that he stated, "life is not a firework..."