Actions Quotes Logo

Paul Fussell Quotes

The implicit optimism of the [field service post card] is worth noting—the way it offers no provisio...

Show More
The Great War and Modern Memory

Chickenshit can be recognized instantly because it never has anything to do with winning the war.

Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War

Americans are the only people in the world known to me whose status anxiety prompts them to advertis...

Show More

Irony is the attendant of hope and the fuel of hope is innocence.

The Great War and Modern Memory

Every war is ironic because every war is worse than expected. Every war constitutes an irony of situ...

Show More
The Great War and Modern Memory

The past, which as always did not know the future, acted in ways that ask tobe imagined before they ...

Show More

i find nothing more depressing than optimism.

If we do not redefine manhood, war is inevitable.

If I didn't have writing, I'd be running down the street hurling grenades in people's faces.

Related Authors

Picture of Paul Fussell

Paul Fussell

Historian

Born: 1924-03-22

Died: 2012-05-23

Paul Fussell (22 March 1924 - 23 May 2012) was an American cultural and literary historian, professor emeritus of the University of Pennsylvania, and author of books on eighteenth-century English literature, World War I, World War II, and social class.More