All Quiet on the Western Front

by Erich Maria Remarque

We had fancied our task would be different, only to find we were to be trained for heroism as though we were circus-ponies.

have fallen away, his mouth has become larger, his teeth stick out and look as though they were made of chalk. The flesh melts, the forehead bulges more prominently, the cheekbones protrude. The skeleton is working itself through. The eyes are already sunken in. In a couple of hours it will be over.

In himself man is essentially a beast, only he butters it over like a slice of bread with a little decorum.

We have lost all feeling for one another. We can hardly control ourselves when our glance lights on the form of some other man. We are insensible, dead men, who through some trick, some dreadful magic, are still able to run and to kill.