Quotes About Survival

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 thin stretched painfully over repressed madness, over an almost irresistible, bursting roar. We have neither flesh nor muscle 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.

It is just as much a matter of chance that I am still alive as that I might have been hit. In a bomb-proof dug-out I may be smashed to atoms and in the open may survive ten hours' bombardment unscathed. No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck.

Only thus were we prepared for what awaited us. We did not break down, but adapted ourselves; our twenty years, which made many another thing so grievous, helped us in this. But by far the most important result was that it awakened in us a strong, practical sense of esprit de corps, which in the field developed into the finest thing that arose out of the war—comradeship.

That they have, indeed! My sisters tell how they had to scrounge to get the supper together. Twice the gendarmes took everything from them at the station. The third time they sewed the eggs inside their cloaks, put the sausages into their blouses and hid the potatoes in pockets inside their skirts. That time they got through.

And we stand still again, and suddenly we feel that everything out there in front of us, that absolute hell, that ragged patch of shell-holes, is still there inside us.

Where do flies go in winter?

Memory is a deadly disease for a refugee; it's his cancer of the soul.

Jeder Soldat bleibt nur durch tausend Zufälle am Leben. Und jeder Soldat glaubt und vertraut dem Zufall

Das Grauen läßt sich ertragen, solange man sich einfach duckt; aber es tötet, wenn man darüber nachdenkt

we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals.

up to the belly. When the attack starts I will let myself fall into the water, with my face as deep in the mud as I can keep it without suffocating. I must pretend to be dead. Suddenly

I merely crawl still farther under the coffin, it shall protect me, though Death himself lies in it. Before

We became hard, suspicious, pitiless, vicious, tough—and that was good; for these attributes were just what we lacked.

eIf we could only see the animals we should be able to endure it better. Müller has a pair of glasses. We see a dark group, bearers with stretchers, and larger black clumps moving about. Those are the wounded horses. But not all of them. Some gallop away in the distance, fall down, and then run on farther. The belly of one is ripped open, the guts trail out. He becomes tangled in them and falls, then he stands up again.

If we could only see the animals we should be able to endure it better. Müller has a pair of glasses. We see a dark group, bearers with stretchers, and larger black clumps moving about. Those are the wounded horses. But not all of them. Some gallop away in the distance, fall down, and then run on farther. The belly of one is ripped open, the guts trail out. He becomes tangled in them and falls, then he stands up again.

Nach den Jahren hart am Tode war der Wein nicht nur Wein, das Silber nicht nur Silber, die Musik, die von irgendwoher in den Raum sickerte, nicht nur Musik, und Elisabeth nicht nur Elisabeth - sie alle waren Symbole jenes anderen Lebens, des Lebens ohne Töten und Zerstören, des Lebens um des Lebens willen, das schon fast zu einer Mythe und zu einem hoffnungslosen Traum geworden war.

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—now, for the first time in three days we can see his face, now for the first time in three days we can oppose him; we feel a mad anger. No longer do we lie helpless, waiting on the scaffold, we can destroy and kill, to save ourselves, to save ourselves and to be revenged. ==========

Video sam u svom životu tolike mrtve da je za mene svaka bolest još uvek bila život i nada...

Avevamo diciott'anni, e cominciavamo ad amare il mondo, l'esistenza: ci hanno costretti a spararle contro.

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?

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.

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—

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.

Viss, ko cilv?ks p?rdz?vojis, k??st par d?ku. Pret?ga padar?šana! Un, jo briesm?g?ks kaut kas bijis, jo d?kain?ks tas k??st atmi??s.