Quotes About War

The story covers less than a year in the life of a family, and during this comparatively short period many things happen, some serious and important, others cheerful and gay. It is summertime—a summer during the greatest and most terrible of wars—but the author felt disinclined to bring such a grave and desperate matter into a lighthearted tale; here, then, are to be found only the lighter side and the small inconveniences of Total War; the larger issues are ignored.

War is horrible," I said, trying to damp her down. "If you had lived through the war you wouldn't think it glorious. War is just agony. It's living under a dark cloud all the time and wondering if someone you love has been killed.

If you had told me eighteen months ago that German aeroplanes would fly over this house, and that I would not take any notice of them but just go on as usual, I should have thought you were mad!" I ask her what has changed her outlook and she replies, "I think we have got beyond being frightened for ourselves. We don't matter, Hester. It is Britain that matters now. We are all soldiers now . .

All war is awful," says Guthrie. "It's a wrong and horrible thing, war is, but we don't need to worry about the rights and wrongs of war. We tried our best for peace. We tried for peace to the absolute limit of honour . . . but you can't have peace when a pack of ravening wolves gets loose . . . Let's talk about Avielochan.

Several aeroplanes are now seen which inspires Bryan to announce that he is going to be an ace in the next war. Reflect on the futility of all this talk anent disarmament in the face of the warlike spirit of the rising generation.

Arnold was very clever," she said at last. "He saw how unsettled the world was—everything slipping downhill. He was sure there was going to be another war. Sometimes I almost feel glad he didn't live to see it. He said things were going from bad to worse and he was quite right, of course . . . but it doesn't help to be miserable; it doesn't make things right to keep on grieving over them. It clouds the sun, that's all.

Annie has been with me for years and is a tremendous talker. She starts immediately and discusses the war news. Annie says that the war will be over quite soon now and the major will be back before I know where I am. . . . Cannot help feeling that Annie is a trifle too optimistic, but am comforted all the same, and repair to the kitchen in a cheerful frame of mind.

It is all true. It is true that a German plane came down on the moor in the middle of a shooting party and the two airmen were captured. It is true that German planes came down to low level in Norfolk, and elsewhere, and used machine guns to kill pedestrians on the roads.

Her eyes are full of tears and I realise that she must be comforted, so I proceed to explain my own particular method of "carrying on". None of us could bear the war if we allowed ourselves to brood upon the wickedness of it and the misery it has entailed, so the only thing to do is not to allow oneself to think about it seriously, but just to skitter about on the surface of life like a water beetle.

Have decided not to mention the war in my diary—or at least only to mention it as it affects me. Diary is to be an escape from war (if possible). Domestic affairs much smoother now.

As she went about her tasks — writing letters, answering telephone calls and putting the house in order — Nell reflected that the war had killed her father just as surely as if he had been shot through the heart by a German bullet. It seemed odd that he, who had stayed at home in peaceful Amberwell, should be the first casualty in the Ayrton family.

Jerry hesitated. She said, "But Rudge, you ought to go—if they want you, I mean." "Not me," replied Rudge, taking another mouthful of sausage. "Why should I go? It ain't my war. I never wanted war with the Germans." "Nobody wanted war!" cried Jerry. "Why did they 'ave it then? They won't get me for cannon fodder," said Rudge with a grin.

I wish you wouldn't gad about the country like this," said John with a sigh. "But I'm quite strong now!" "Stronger than you were," amended John. "It's my war work," Sarah pointed out. "I don't enjoy tearing around the country giving Red Cross lectures—but I don't suppose soldiers enjoy fighting or munitions workers enjoy standing all day long, filing nuts and screws.

The Major would be laughing at me,' replies Alec, smiling. 'But no, I would be wanting no war for him. It is only that I am glad now there was one for me. I was not glad at the time, no, not altogether glad. Wars are bad things, and we want no more of them – but there is good in them for the lucky ones.' 'I believe you are right,' says

didn't want it," he said. "It didn't matter to me if 'itler took Poland. What's Poland to me? Why didn't we let 'im 'ave Poland if that's what 'e wanted." "Poland was just the beginning. He would have swallowed Poland first and then he'd have come for us—one at a time, that was his idea.

Playing a prisoner of war trapped in Pakistan for three years was a novelty for me. We made sure that we didn't talk about India versus Pakistan but about the emotions of people on both sides and how terrorism affects us all.

The Fatherland Liberation War, which the Korean people fought against the haughty U.S. imperialists who had battened on aggression and pillage, was, in fact, a hard fight that could be likened to a bare-handed man versus brigandish robbers.

How does the past ambush us? How can we be accurate about what happened, how can we be true to it? And can war be declared over? And can we ever evolve from the notion of war, of nations, of us versus them?

In fact, American presidents never apologize for what America does in war, because in the American mind, all its wars are defensive, always fought from the high moral ground, always good versus evil.

I wanted to write 'In Harm's Way' from the young men's point of view of being in a raft, or hanging in a life vest with just their nose poking above the water.

It's easier to get people to talk to you if you're a vet and you want to interview a vet about war. Sometimes they open up a little bit easier.

My father, Reginald Francois, was a D-Day veteran. He never submitted to bullying by any German, and neither will his son.

No person can escape Einsteinian relativity, and no soldier or veteran can escape the trauma of war's dislocation.

For every veteran who goes through a divorce, a wife goes through one, too. For every veteran alone in the basement, there is a wife upstairs, bewildered, isolated and in despair from the dark clouds of war that hangs over family life.