All Quiet on the Western Front

by Erich Maria Remarque

It is not against men that we fling our bombs, what do we know of men in this moment when Death is hunting us down—now,

I soon found out this much:—terror can be endured so long as a man simply ducks;—but it kills, if a man thinks about it.

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 your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late.

There is the mad story of Detering. He was one of those who kept himself to himself. His misfortune was that he saw a cherry tree in a garden.

But we are emaciated and starved. Our food is bad and mixed up with so much substitute stuff that it makes us ill. The factory owners in Germany have grown wealthy;—dysentery dissolves our bowels.