Quotes About War

Before another three years passed, the book was being burned by the Nazis, who found the depiction of a disillusioned and demoralized German soldiery to be intolerably offensive.

And now we realize what is expected—the Americans want to exchange. It is apparent that they have not long been in the war; they are still collecting souvenirs, shoulder straps, badges, belt buckles, decorations, uniform buttons. In exchange we stock ourselves with soap, cigarettes, chocolate and tinned meat. They even want us to take a handful of money for our dog—but we draw the line there; let them offer what they will, the dog stays with us.

It's queer, when one thinks about it," goes on Kropp, "we are here to protect our fatherland. And the French are over there to protect their fatherland. Now who's in the right?

How pointless all human thoughts, words and deeds must be, if things like this are possible! Everything must have been fraudulent and pointless if thousands of years of civilization weren't even able to prevent this river of blood, couldn't stop these torture chambers existing in their hundreds of thousands. Only a military hospital can really show you what war is.

We had to recognize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs. They surpassed us only in phrases and in cleverness. The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces.

Even a soldier's behind likes to sit soft.

The noises from outside all merge into one another, become a dream which disappears from the waking memory...he sees the woods and stars behind him, and so he moves on, an ordinary soldier, with his big boots and his webbing and his pack, making his tiny way under the sky's great vault along the road that lies before him; a soldier who forgets things quickly and who isn't even depressed much any more, but who just goes onwards under the great night sky.

all top-grade emperors need at least one war, otherwise they don't get famous. Have a look in your school history books - Stanislaus Kat Katczinsky

Suddenly my mother seizes hold of my hand and asks falteringly: 'Was it very bad out there, Paul?' Mother, what should I answer to that! You would not understand, you could never realize it. And you shall never realize it.

There is the great sky again, and the stars, and the first streak of dawn, and he is walking beneath that sky, a soldier with big boots and a full belly, a little soldier in the early morning.

I bet there are other people behind it all who are making a profit out of the war - Detering

I think it's more a kind of fever, 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. - Albert Kropp

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 18 and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces.

The cries continued, it is not men, they could not cry so terribly. 'Wounded horses', says Kat. It is is unendurable, it is the moaning of the world, it is the martyred creation, wild with anguish, filled with terror and groaning.

Kropp invece è un pensatore. Le dichiarazioni di guerra, egli propone, dovrebbero essere una specie di festa popolare, con biglietti d'ingresso e banda, come per i combattimenti dei tori. Poi, nell'arena, i ministri e i generali dei due stati avversari, in calzoncini da bagno e armati di manganello, si azzuffano. Vince il paese di quello che caccia l'altro sotto. Sarebbe assai più semplice e meglio di adesso, che s'ammazzano tra loro persone che non c'entrano. La proposta piace.

They used to tie us to a tree, but that is forbidden now. In many ways we are treated quite like men. An

And this is only one hospital, one single station; there are hundreds of thousands in Germany, hundreds of thousands in France, hundreds of thousands in Russia. How senseless is everything that can ever be written, done, or thought, when such things are possible. It must be all lies and of no account when the culture of a thousand years could not prevent this stream of blood being poured out, these torture-chambers in their hundreds of thousands. A hospital alone shows what war is. I

But how can a man look after anyone in the field!

The wisest were just the poor and simple people. They knew the war to be a misfortune, whereas those who were better off, and should have been able to see more clearly what the consequences would be, were beside themselves with joy. Katczinsky

We have almost grown accustomed to it; war is the cause of death like cancer and tuberculosis, like influenza and dysentery.

Non può essere del tutto scomparsa, quella tenerezza che ci turbava il sangue, quell'incertezza, quell'inquietudine di ciò che doveva giungere, i mille volti dell'avvenire, la melodia dei sogni e dei libri, il fruscio lontano, il presentimento della donna: non può essere scomparso tutto questo sotto il fuoco tambureggiante, nella disperazione, nei bordelli di truppa.

What has Kantorek written to you?" Müller asks him. He laughs. "We are the Iron Youth." We all three smile bitterly, Kropp rails: he is glad that he can speak. Yes, that's the way they think, these hundred thousand Kantoreks! Iron Youth! Youth! We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? Youth? That is long ago. We are old folk.

Erich Maria Remarque

While they continued to write and talk, we saw the wounded and dying. While they taught that duty to one's country is the greatest thing, we already knew that death-throes are stronger.