Quotes from Steven Hartov

He most probably knew, already as a child, that he would accomplish great deeds of daring, and the trappings that would someday result were to be thought of as no more than diplomas. Medals were merely signatures upon the histories of dutiful deeds, which would have transpired with or without them.

Youths are chosen for combat precisely because they are unable to fully imagine their own mortality. If armies were composed of the middle-aged, there would be no wars.

A wound only begins to heal when you make it scream. Pain is the key, a message from the brain that the blood flows again into mending flesh, that your will shall conquer weakness. If you lie there and try to fight it, you'll simply rot.

I have always been a patriot, Brandt. In order to be a truly effective soldier, one must believe in one's country, is that not so?

A professional soldier must also be a realist. There is a time to attack, and a time to retreat. There is a time to press for victory, and a time to accept its impossibility. Only fools and tyrants deny the inevitable.