Men who have embraced one idea can live only by and for that idea. Beyond it, they have nothing but their memories. Guy Sajer More Quotes by Guy Sajer More Quotes From Guy Sajer Only happy people have nightmares, from overeating. For those who live a nightmare reality, sleep is a black hole, lost in time, like death. Guy Sajer time happiness death A day came when I should have died, and after that nothing seemed very important. So I have stayed as I am, without regret, separated from the normal human condition. Guy Sajer regret important should-have I had often thought that if I managed to live through the war I wouldn't expect too much of life. How could one resent disappointment in love if life itself was continuously in doubt? Since Belgorod, terror had overturned all my preconceptions, and the pace of life had been so intense one no longer knew what elements of ordinary life to abandon in order to maintain some semblance of balance. I was still unresigned to the idea of death, but I had already sworn to myself during moments of intense fear that I would exchange anything - fortune, love, even a limb - if I could simply survive. Guy Sajer disappointment love war The problems I had existed before I did, and I discovered them. Guy Sajer problem War always reaches the depths of horror because of idiots who perpetuate terror from generation to generation under the pretext of vengeance. Guy Sajer depth soldier war I have used the words and expressions which my experiences from Minsk to Kharkov to the Don suggested to me. But I should have reserved those words and expressions for what came later, even though they are not strong enough. It is a mistake to use intense words without carefully weighing and measuring them, or they will have already been used when one needs them later. It's a mistake, for instance, to used the word frightful to describe a few broken up companions mixed into the ground: but it's a mistake that might be forgiven. Guy Sajer strong expression mistake Then there was the war, and I married it because there was nothing else when I reached the age of falling in love. Guy Sajer falling-in-love soldier war No time to spare: the expression assumed its full significance, as so many expressions do in wartime. Guy Sajer wartime significance expression
