Empress Dowager Cixi Quote

Now they [the Powers] have started the aggression, and the extinction of our nation is imminent. If we just fold our arms and yield to them, I would have no face to see our ancestors after death. If we must perish, why not fight to the death?

Richard O'Connor (1973). The spirit soldiers: a historical narrative of the Boxer Rebellion (illustrated ed.). Putnam. p. 85