Quotes from Siegfried Sassoon

I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers.

And when the war is done and youth stone dead, I'd toddle safely home and die--in bed.

And it's been proved that soldiers don't go mad Unless they lose control of ugly thoughts That drive them out to jabber among the trees.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you'll never know The hell where youth and laughter go." "The War Poems

I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defense and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest.

I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.

I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust.

I believe that the purpose for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.

I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it.

If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,I'd live with scarlet Majors at the Base,And speed glum heroes up the line of death.