Quotes from Erich Maria Remarque

I think it's more a kind of fever,' says Albert. 'Nobody really wants it, but all of a sudden, there it is. We didn't want the war, they say the same thing on the other side – and in spite of that, half the world is at it hammer and tongs.

Ravic straightened up. "Faith can easily make one fanatical. That's why all religions have cost so much blood." He grinned. "Tolerance is the daughter of doubt, Eugénie. That explains why you, with all your faith, are so much more aggressive toward me than I, lost infidel, am toward you." Veber

A neat little apartment with a neat little bourgeois life. A neat little security on the edge of the abyss. Do you really see that?

Do you know how one knows a cavalier when one sees him? He always behaves decently when he is drunk.

What's the matter with you anyway? Riesenfeld shouts You look like a moon-struck kangaroo!

You see," said Otto. "That's the gift of age. Tears and laughter—quick changes. No resentments. Something one might well learn," he observed meditatively.

Night again. We are deadened by the strain—a deadly tension that scrapes along one's spine like a gapped knife. Our legs refuse to move, our hands tremble, our bodies are a thin skin stretched painfully over repressed madness, over an almost irresistible, bursting roar. We have neither flesh nor muscles any longer, we dare not look at one another for fear of some miscalculable thing. So we shut our teeth—it will end—it will end—perhaps we will come through.

Was erwarten sie von uns, wenn eine Zeit kommt, wo kein Krieg ist? Jahre hindurch war unsere Beschäftigung Töten - es war unser erster Beruf im Dasein. Unser Wissen vom Leben beschränkt sich auf den Tod. Was soll danach noch geschehen? Und was soll aus uns werden?

The devil take all conventions, they were made for other times.

Ravic emptied his glass. He got a package of cigarettes out of his pocket, took one out and lit it. His hands were not yet steady. He flung the match on the floor and ordered another calvados. That face, that smiling face which he thought he had just seen again—he must have been

Es piece?os un p?rlaižu acis istabai. Griesti ir zemi un sl?pi, un telpa nav liela, bet man taj? ir viss, kas vajadz?gs, - gulta, plaukts ar gr?mat?m, galds, p?ris kr?slu un vecas klavieres.

One lost easiest what one held in one's arms— never what one left.

Ravic emptied his glass. He got a package of cigarettes out of his pocket, took one out and lit it. His hands were not yet steady. He flung the match on the floor and ordered another calvados. That face, that smiling face which he thought he had just seen again—he must have been mistaken.

Jaut?t otram noz?m? v?l joproj?m izvair?ties no izš?iroš? spieduma. Es gan ar? ?sten?b? negaid?ju atbildi no jums. B?t?b? esmu jaut?jis tikai pats sev. Bet dažbr?d to var izdar?t, tikai jaut?jot otram.

Er erkannte die Hoffnungslosigkeit, zu der Gerechtigkeit und Mitgefühl ewig verurteilt waren: immer wieder an Selbstsucht, Gleichgültigkeit und Angst zu stranden.

We get back pretty well. There is no further attack by the enemy. We lie for an hour panting and resting before anyone speaks. We are so completely played out that in spite of our great hunger we do not think of the provisions. Then gradually we become something like men again.

Ništa nije opasnije od žene koja sve voli. Kako da ?ovek onda udesi da voli samo njega?

Tas, ko nevar dab?t, cilv?kam vienm?r liekas lab?ks par to, kas vi?am ir. Te past?v cilv?ka dz?ves romantika un idiotisms.

There's something good about unpleasant memories: they make you think you are happy when a moment before you were convinced of the contrary. Happiness is a question of degree. When you know that, you are seldom completely unhappy.

No one will understand us – because in front of us there is a generation of men who did, it is true, share the years out here with us, but who already had a bed and a job and who are going back to their old positions, where they will forget all about the war – and behind us, a new generation is growing up, one like we used to be, and that generation will be strangers to us and will push us aside.

Well, she can go to hell with her whispering and her words. You believe in a miracle, but really it just comes down to loaves of bread.

The small tool of death was like a dynamo of life.

That's how we are! Afraid of our feelings. And when we become aware of them we immediately think we are swindlers.

We loved our country as much as they; we went courageously into every action; but also we distinguished the false from true, we had suddenly learned to see. And we saw that there was nothing of their world left. We were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through.