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our heads were full of nebulous ideas, which cast an idealized, almost romantic glow over life

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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...more

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Bombardment, barrage, curtain-fire, mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns, hand-grenades - words, words, but they hold the horror of the world.

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The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom.

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A man dreams of a miracle and wakes up to loaves of bread.

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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 ...more

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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...more

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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...more

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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...more

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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...more

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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...more

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We know only that in some strange and melancholy way we have become a waste land. All the same, we are not often sad.

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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 ...more

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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...more

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The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces.