The Thin Red Line (The World War II Trilogy)

by James Jones

Is it really worth it to die, to be dead, just to prove to everybody that you’re not a coward?

There was an instinctive ducking motion among them, like the passing of a breeze over a wheatfield, but nobody went to the ground.

compared to the fact that he might very well be dead by this time tomorrow, whether he was courageous or not today was pointless, empty.

fear running like heavy threads of quicksilver through all his arteries and veins as if they were glass thermometers.

all turned toward the little group of leaders like a row of sunflowers turned toward the sun.