The Great War Quotes

“Our knowledge of life is limited to death”
― Enrich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front

“No commander was ever privileged to lead a finer force; no commander ever derived greater inspiration from the performance of his troops.”
― John J. Pershing

“In each succeeding war there is a tendency to proclaim as something new the principles under which it is conducted. Not only those who have never studied or experienced the realities of war, but also professional soldiers frequently fall into the error. But the principles of warfare as I learned them at West Point remain unchanged.”
― John J. Pershing, My Experiences in the World War

“In April war was declared with Germany. Wilson and his cabinet—a cabinet that in its lack of distinction was strangely reminiscent of the twelve apostles—let loose the carefully starved dogs of war, and the press began to whoop hysterically against the sinister morals, sinister philosophy, and sinister music produced by the Teutonic temperament. Those who fancied themselves particularly broad-minded made the exquisite distinction that it was only the German Government which aroused them to hysteria; the rest were worked up to a condition of retching indecency. Any song which contained the word "mother" and the word "kaiser" was assured of a tremendous success. At last every one had something to talk about—and almost every one fully enjoyed it, as though they had been cast for parts in a sombre and romantic play.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned

“The landscape had been so maimed by this new kind of warfare it was as if human architects of great genius had sat down to plan hell, since no two of them could agree on the design of heaven.”
― Christopher Buehlman, Those Across the River

“The real propaganda is what—if we are genuinely a living member of a nation—we tell ourselves because we have hope, hope being a symbol of a nation's instinct of self-preservation. To remain blind to the unjustness of the cause of the individual "Germany," to recognise at every moment the justness of the cause of the individual "France," the surest way was not for a German to be without judgement, or for a Frenchman to possess it, it was, both for the one and for the other, to be possessed of patriotism.”
― Marcel Proust, Time Regained

“They called it the Great War, but that implied worthiness and grandeur, not violence and helplessness and the utter waste and devastation our country, our city, our people endured.”
― M.J. Rose, The Secret Language of Stones

“The end of the war was not celebrated in the Socialist Standard...The four year's madness had shown the so-called socialists of the world in their true colours: Kautsky, Jack London, the advocates of international brotherhood everywhere had chosen nationalism and militarism in the hour of trial.The ILP in Britain had rejected the war, but its association with the Labour Party deprived it of all credit in the eyes of the SPGB.The members who had come through the war were confirmed as never before in the belief that they,and no one else, held the truth and menaced the system.”
― Robert Barltrop

“O Slovensku samostatném se nemohlo vůbec jednat vážně; zbývala by možnost, aby se stalo autonomním v Uhersku. Ani to nebylo možné podle daných okolností, a tudíž nezbávalo než sjednocení. Malí národové všichni za světové války žádali svobodu a sjenocení. Slovaci a Češi věděli, že sám jsem byl vždy pro Slovensko; svým původem a svými tradicem Slovák, cítím slovensky a pro Slovensko jsem vždy nejen horoval, ale pracoval. (..) Vím dobře jak i rusofil Vajanský, když se jednalo doopravdy, byl pro jednotu, nejinak, jak jeho otec, před tím už Kollár a j. Ale vím také, jak se mnozí Slováci ve svém národním a politickém ponížení utěšovali vidinami bez činů a práce. (..) Za války obživl slovenský romantism mezi Slováky v Rusku. (..) někteří slovenští pracovníci snili o Slovensku samostatném nebo spojeném s Ruskem; ale vyskytli se i lidé, kteří hlásali spojení Slovenska s Polskem a dokonce s Maďarskem. V Moskvě se ustavil hned roku 1915 'Slovensko-ruský spolek paměti Štúra' a v něm se tvorřili pod vedením několika politicky naivních Rusů rozmanité protičeské iluse nejasného a nezralého panslavismu a panrusismu.”
― Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Světová revoluce za války a ve válce 1914-1918

“There were thousands of young men, as padres at the front would testify, in whom belief in God was an unshakeable conviction, and who in danger, in bodily agony and in death found peace and consolation in their undimmed faith. There were thousands upon thousands again for whom religion had always been a matter of indifference, and to whom it remained so. But there were also those, not negligible in point of numbers, and far from negligible in point of intelligence, who quietly thought about it all, and found that the faith in which they had been brought up was not reconcilable with the horrors that were their daily bread. About the reality of them there was no doubt: to see your friend turned to tripe or a dish of brains before your eyes was actual, and they threw over the other not with indifference, but with the savage contempt of those who have been fooled. It was childish to talk of loving your enemies when you were going through hell yourself for the sake of maiming or killing them as profusely as possible. And what price Divine Protection for non-combatants? There was that padre (bloody fool) who ran out across a shell-swept area to administer the sacrament to a man who lay mortally wounded in front of a trench, and who was like to die before they could bring him in. A shell hit him directly as he ran: he vanished like a property in a conjuring trick, and one couldn't help laughing and was sick afterwards.”
― E.F. Benson, As We Are

“They lived in a world of destruction and fortuitous death. All was chance, and it was not even the Devil who threw the dice, for he was part of the fairy-tale and perished with it. It had hardly been worth while to pick a bone with it, for the only thing to quarrel with was one's own credulity in having ever believed a tale that broke down at so many points when put to the test. Year by year boys fresh from school joined in the dance of death, and sweltered in the reeking, stinking heat, when they should have been playing cricket or swimming in cool waters, and they got trench-fever and were gassed, and young limbs swift to run and ripe for love were gashed by bullets and sawn off in hospitals. The fate of the world rested on their shoulders: they were the bewildered scapegoats who were driven out into this desert of death, to expiate the criminal pride and folly of those who had been in charge of world-affairs while they were yet unbreeched. Save for rare moments of panic, they maintained a cheerful carelessness, a studied unconsciousness of the surrounding horror, for to think about it, to realize it and speak of it was to go mad. A few went mad, and with bandaged eyes awaited the volley they would never hear. The rest carried on, dumb and gallant, saying nothing, except in a few blurted words to a friend, of that smouldering focus of resentment and despair.”
― E.F. Benson, As We Are

“They waited in position, bayonets fixed, on the morning of July 1st, and listened to the mines go, on schedule at 7.25 a.m. In the distant village of Fricourt, the church bell rang clamorously as the tower collapsed.

The weird sound unnerved the men as they waited in their trench, as if the clanging of the bell were the terrible gabble of their own mute fear. Then the whistle went, and they surged forward, over the top into a world of noise.

There was no logic that carried Perceval Lucas forth as he ran on those strong, lean legs of his; no discernible path that had taken him from his garden by the stream at Rackham Cottage to one of the bloodiest battles in human history, there on the upper reaches of the River Somme.

The following morning, his company entered the village square, and kicked away, underfoot, the stone fragments of saints. The church was a smoking stump, and they saw that its bell-tower had crushed two houses as it fell. Cows wandered the streets, mad and fevered with not having been milked.”
― Alison MacLeod

“As in all great cataclysmic events, men are forced to show their true colours. Some will achieve the status of legend for their courage, brilliance and dedication; some will possess all the same qualities unacknowledged; others will be plodders doing their best; and there will be those who will be what they have always been -- sewer rats.”
― Anne Rouen, Angel of Song

“Dvě události zasluhují zvláštní zmínky. Předně, že naši katolíci postupovali svorně se svobodomyslnými a se socialisty; kdo zná poměr obou směrů v době dřívější, uzná s radostí jednotící sílu osvobozenského hnutí. Katolíci už rok před tím (18. listopadu) usnesli se v Chicagu na memorandu, které bylo určeno papeži Benediktu XV. ; bylo odevzdáno papežskému delegátovi, který počin 'Národního Svazu Českých Katolíků' schválil a slíbil doručit memorandum papeži. V memorandu žádána samostatnost Čechoslovanů a osvobození národa československého v zemích historických a na Slovensku. Sám jsem se zúčastnil katolického sjezdu ve Washingtoně dne 20. června. Objasnil jsem proti starým výtkám své náboženské stanovisko, zejména, jak a proč jsem se stal příkrým odpůrcem toho katolicismu politického, jaký se p%usobením Habsburků vyvinul v Rakousku a Uhersku. Vyslovil jsem se pro rozluku státu a církve podle vzoru amerického. Právě američní katolíci chápali, že nezávislost církve na státu nijak není církvi na závadu. Slíbil jsem, že se přičiním o rozluku bez boje; pokud by při této rozluce šlo o úpravu církevních statků, odmítl jsem konfiskaci. Když se výkonný výbor Národního Svazu Českých Katolíků v Americe usnesl 25. října 1918 vyslat své zástupce do Československé republiky, aby o podstatě rozluky poučili duchovenstvo i katolický lid, uvítal jsem tento ämysl velmi rád (dopisem z 15. listopadu). Dodávám ještě, že také Sdruženie Slovenských Katolíkov v Amerike doporučilo úpravu poměru církve k státu ve smyslu rozluky americké, ovšem se zřetelem na poměry slovenské (ve Wilkes Barre 27. listopadu).”
― Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Světová revoluce za války a ve válce 1914-1918

“She envisioned him walking through a blizzard, his head down, his moustache coated with ice, his frozen fingers gripping his bayonet.”
― Diana Stevan, Sunflowers Under Fire

“She understood that unrequited love could break a heart, but there was nothing she could do about his sorrow.”
― Diana Stevan, Sunflowers Under Fire

“Don't be ridiculous. It (gas) was outlawed at the Hague Convention," I said.
I actually said that. I actually believed that the principles of our civilisation, our civilisation that has developed further than any other in the history of the world, giving us telephones and trains and flying, for God's sake, we can fly. I thought, surely such a civilisation, that prides itself on conquering the beast in man and seeks only to bend towards beauty and prosperity, surely, surely, surely, it would not shatter in such a vile and disgusting way.
The Hague Convention sought to make war more humane. We had reached a point in history where we believed it was possible to make war humane.”
― Alice Winn, In Memoriam

“I just call a volunteer standing two steps next to me who holds
his head out for too long after the shot. At that moment, his head jolts, the
familiar and terrible dull sound of the bullet’s impact sounds, and the man
slowly collapses. The bullet penetrated the forehead and tore off half the
skullcap behind. Still mid-fall, he claws his hands into the wound and smears
himself over and over with his own brain. It was a terrible sight.”
― Philipp Cross, The Other Trench: The WW1 Diary and Photos of a German Officer