Quotes from Erich Maria Remarque

Had we returned home in 1916, out of the suffering and the strength of our experience we might have unleashed a storm. Now if we go back we will be weary, broken, burnt out, rootless, and without hope. We will not be able to find our way any more. ==========

Nichts elender, als Paare zu sehen, über denen die Müdigkeit der Gewohnheit liegt. Verstaubte Liebe; der Küchengarten der Gefühle.

He had collapsed like a rotten tree.

The head-master with the steel watch-chain wants to have at least the whole of Belgium, the coal-areas of France, and a slice of Russia.

Ta sammub uhkelt minema, sest tal õnnestus meid, viimase klassi gümnasiste, sõnalahingus võita. Tõepoolest, tema arvamus on siin tüüpiline, sellega kohtud siin üha jälle ega oska ka midagi arukat vastata, sest kui asja üksnes sellest küljest võtta, siis kaob arusaamine teistest seostest.

Gledao sam naokolo. Više nisam bio sam. Na jugu, iza horizonta, urlao je sad jedan motor. Iza magle, bledim putevima jurila je pomo?. Farovi su sipali svetlost, gume su zviždale, a dve ruke ?vrsto držale volan. Dva oka su prodirala kroz tamu, hladno i pouzdano - o?i mog druga...

words, words, but they hold the horror of the world.

Sieviete, kuru iek?ro cits, kaut ar? tas b?tu kaisles aps?sts z?rcinieks, t?l?t k??st v?rt?g?ka nek? iepriekš. T? nu ir, ka cilv?ks daudz vair?k dz?vo no relat?v?m nek? no absol?t?m v?rt?b?m.

It is not against men that we fling our bombs, what do we know of men in this moment when Death is hunting us down?

One man's destroyer is another's nightingale.

Give 'em all the same grub and all the same pay And the war would be over and done in a day.

Life was something too great, and death also had something too great about it; they were not to be played with. Having courage was a different thing from having no fear; courage was consciousness of danger, fearlessness mere ignorance.

They are many indeed that lie there, though until now we have not thought of it so. Hitherto we have just all remained there together, they in the graves, we in the trenches, divided only by a few handfuls of earth. They were but a little before us; daily we became less and they more, and often we have not known whether we already belonged to them or not.

People become melancholic when they start thinking about life. They become cynics because they see what other people do with life.

We want to live at any price; so we cannot burden ourselves with feelings which, though they might be ornamental enough in peacetime, would be out of place here.

M?l?t noz?m? - grib?t atdot otram to, ko nevar patur?t.

M?s ar katru dienu vair?k mirstam, bet ar? ar katru dienu ilg?k dz?vojam [..] nekas netiek izn?cin?ts, un, kas neko negrib patur?t, tam pieder viss.

We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation. It is not against men that we fling our bombs, what do we know of men in this moment when Death is hunting us down—

Es dom?ju, ka esmu tevi pazaudÄ"jis," teicu, turÄ"dams vi?u cieÅ¡i apskautu. "Tu mani nekad nepazaudÄ"si," vi?a ?ukstÄ"ja zem Å¡au­r?s maskas. "Un zini, k?d?? ne? T?d??, ka tu mani nekad negribi paturÄ"t tik cieÅ¡i k? zemnieks savu tÄ«rumu. TurpretÄ« viside?l?kais vÄ«rs k??st garlaicÄ«gs.

And even if these scenes of our youth were given back to us we would hardly know what to do . . . it would be like gazing at the photograph of a dead comrade; those are his features, it is his face, and the days we spent together take on a mournful life in the memory; but the man itself it is not. We could never regain the old intimacy with those scenes.

He is right. We are not youth any longer. We don't want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in war.

Then what exactly is the war for?" asks Tjaden. Kat shrugs his shoulders. "There must be some people to whom the war is useful." "Well, I'm not one of them," grins Tjaden. "Not you, nor anybody else here.

Fate had struck while she sat unsuspecting, had struck somewhere on one of the many curves of this cursed course. The seconds became leaden, the minutes hours. The carrousel on the white ribbon existed now only like a bad dream; her chest became a black cavity, hollowed out with waiting.

Non siamo più spensierati, ma atrocemente indifferenti. Saremmo lì, nel paesaggio della nostra giovinezza, ma sapremmo viverci? Abbandonati come bambini, disillusi come anziani. Siamo rozzi, tristi, superficiali. Io penso che siamo perduti.