All Quiet on the Western Front

by Erich Maria Remarque

While they taught that duty to one’s country is the greatest thing, we already knew that death-throes are stronger.

terror can be endured so long as a man simply ducks;—but it kills, if a man thinks about it.

A word of command has made these silent figures our enemies; a word of command might transform them into our friends.

Our hands are earth, our bodies clay and our eyes pools of rain.