"our heads were full of nebulous ideas, which cast an idealized, almost romantic glow over life
The things men did or felt they had to do.
~ Erich Maria Remarque ~
Photo by Ákos Szabó
Photo by Ian Turnell
The things men did or felt they had to do.
More Erich Maria Remarque quotes
"A man cannot realize that above such shattered bodies there are still human faces in which life goes its daily round. And this is only one hospital, a...
"Bombardment, barrage, curtain-fire, mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns, hand-grenades - words, words, but they hold the horror of the world.
"The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom.
"A man dreams of a miracle and wakes up to loaves of bread.
"He wants me to tell him about the front; he is curious in a way that I find stupid and distressing; I no longer have any real contact with him. There ...
"But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and you...
"But what I would like to know," says Albert, "is whether there would not have been a war if the Kaiser had said No.""I'm sure there would," I interjec...
"And in the night you realize, when you wake out of a dream, overcome and captivated by the enchantment of visions that crowd in on each other, just ho...
"To no man does the earth mean so much as to the soldier. When he presses himself down upon her long and powerfully, when he buries his face and his li...
"Beside us lies a fair-headed recruit in utter terror. He has buried his face in his hands, his helmet has fallen off. I fish hold of it and try to put...
"We know only that in some strange and melancholy way we have become a waste land. All the same, we are not often sad.
"From the earth, from the air, sustaining forces pour into us--mostly from the earth. To no man does the earth mean so much as to the soldier. When he ...
"Kropp on the other hand is a thinker. He proposes that a declaration of war should be a kind of popular festival with entrance-tickets and bands, like...
"The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces.