All Quiet on the Western Front [Classics Illustrated] Quotes

“It is a strange thing that all the memories have these two qualities. They are always full of quietness, that is the most striking thing about them; and even when things weren’t like that in reality, they still seem to have that quality. They are soundless apparitions, which speak to me by looks and gestures, wordless and silent—and their silence is precisely what disturbs me.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front [Classics Illustrated]

“We became hard, suspicious, pitiless, vicious, tough-- and that was good; for these attributes were just what we lacked. Had we gone into the trenches without this period of training most of us would certainly have gone mad. Only thus were we prepared for what awaited us.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front [Classics Illustrated]

“life is simply one continual watch against the menace of death;—it has transformed us into unthinking animals in order to give us the weapon of instinct—it has reinforced us with dullness, so that we do not go to pieces before the horror, which would overwhelm us if we had clear, conscious thought—it has awakened in us the sense of comradeship, so that we escape the abyss of solitude—it has lent us the indifference of wild creatures, so that in spite of all, we perceive the positive in every moment, and store it up as a reserve against the onslaught of nothingness.”
― All Quiet on the Western Front”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front [Classics Illustrated]

“He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front. He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front [Classics Illustrated]

“To-day we would pass through the scenes of our youth like travelers. We are burnt up by hard facts; like tradesmen we understand distinctions, and like butchers, necessities. We are no longer untroubled- we are indifferent. We might exist there; but should we really live there?”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front [Classics Illustrated]

“I breathe deeply and say over to myself:- "You are at home, you are at home." But a sense of strangeness will not leave me, I cannot feel at home amongst these things. There is my mother, there is my sister, there my case of butterflies, and there the mahogany piano - but I am not myself there. There is a distance, a veil between us.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front [Classics Illustrated]

“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, one single station; there are hundreds of thousands in Germany, hundreds of thousands in France, hundreds of thousands in Russia. How senseless is everything that can ever be written, done, or thought, when such things are possible.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front [Classics Illustrated]

“– Bajtárs, nem akartalak megölni. Ha még egyszer beugranál ide, nem tenném meg, föltéve, hogy te is okosan viselkednél. De azelőtt csak egy gondolat, egy lehetőség voltál nekem, amely az agyamban élt, és elhatározást szült: ezt a lehetőséget döftem le. Csak most látom, hogy te is olyan ember vagy, mint én. Akkor a kézigránátjaidra, a szuronyodra, a fegyvereidre gondoltam – most a feleségedet látom, az arcodat, a közelségünket. Bocsáss meg, bajtárs! Ezt mindig későn látjuk meg. Miért nem mondják meg nekünk újra meg újra, hogy ti éppen olyan szegény kutyák vagytok, mint mi, hogy az anyátok éppen úgy aggódik, mint a miénk, és egyformán félünk a haláltól, és egyformán halunk meg, egyforma fájdalommal. Bocsáss meg, bajtárs, hogy is lehettél te az ellenségem! Ha ezt a fegyvert, ezt az egyenruhát ledobjuk, éppen úgy a testvérem lehetnél, mint Kat és Albert. Végy el tőlem húsz esztendőt, bajtárs, és kelj fel; végy többet is, hisz úgysem tudom, mit kezdjek vele!”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front [Classics Illustrated]

“Hai ragione: non siamo più giovani, non ci interessa più dare l'assalto al mondo. Siamo dei profughi, fuggiamo da noi stessi. Avevamo diciott'anni, e cominciavamo ad amare il mondo e l'esistenza: ci hanno costretti a spararle contro. La prima granata ci ha colpiti al cuore. Siamo esclusi ormai dall'attività, dal lavoro, dal progresso, non ci crediamo più. Crediamo alla guerra.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front [Classics Illustrated]

“I tell you it is the vilest baseness to use horses in the war.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front [Classics Illustrated]