To it-ogo:
I absolutely agree with you. Though my knowledge of Russian isn't as advanced as yours, I still understand that English to Russian translations can be a complete mess.
And that's exactly the case here.

Russian is absolutely not the best language for the straightforward moralizing, BTW.
It's almost as if that's TOO true. ;O


To Demonic_Duck:
Is the "sacrificing" the sacrificing of your own soul by becoming tainted by this lie?
That's essentially the main idea.
I would only add that it's also about living a life worth living; living with meaning; not wasting ones life in a lie; understanding how lies and lieing to yourself affects your life.
"The sacrifice of hiding in a lie" refers to you losing your ability to live a meaningful life becase you are lieing to yourself and/or actually living a lie. Which can double as a reminder: to live life the way you know you should; to live life to its fullest.


To any and all:
As for the meaning behind my entire investigation behind all of this would be that I am planning on getting a tattoo of what Im talking about.
All I want is one tattoo. I want it to be in my own Russian cursive and to be of something that means a lot to me.
A few months after my friend Алина started teaching me Russian (and how to write in cursive too) I thought "I finally know exactly what I want my tattoo to be".
(still... jut like in English, im positive there are sayings in Russian that describe "ones efforts being futile" or "somebody doing something even though there's no possibility of success" in some form or fashion) :\


Nevertheless, thanks for the help! (... and Im sure трудно would be a prefect word to describe me)