The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.
Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, 1954 Nobel laureate (21 July 1899 - July 2 1961)
He was a WW1 veteran and won a medal for rescuing some Italian troops and a front line war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War and WW2. Just before D-day Hemingway sustained a severe head-wound that required 57 stitches. Still suffering symptoms of the concussion he accompanied troops to the Normandy landings wearing a large head bandage. The military treated him as "precious cargo" and he was not allowed ashore.