Wars damage the civilian society as much as they damage the enemy. Soldiers never get over it. Paul Fussell More Quotes by Paul Fussell More Quotes From Paul Fussell Today the Somme is a peaceful but sullen place, unforgetting and unforgiving. ... To wander now over the fields destined to extrude their rusty metal fragments for centuries is to appreciate in the most intimate way the permanent reverberations of July, 1916. When the air is damp you can smell rusted iron everywhere, even though you see only wheat and barley. Paul Fussell july iron air Understanding the past requires pretending that you don't know the present. It requires feeling its own pressure on your pulses without any ex post facto illumination. Paul Fussell illumination understanding past Exploration belongs to the Renaissance, travel to the bourgeois age, tourism to our proletarian moment. Paul Fussell renaissance tourism age Chickenshit refers to behavior that makes military life worse than it need be: petty harassment of the weak by the strong; open scrimmage for power and authority and prestige; sadism thinly disguised as necessary discipline; a constant 'paying off of old scores'; and insistence on the letter rather than the spirit of ordinances. Paul Fussell discipline strong military Most people who seek attention and regard by announcing that they're writing a novel are actually so devoid of narrative talent that they can't hold the attention of a dinner table for thirty seconds, even with a dirty joke. Paul Fussell writing people dirty Anybody who notices unpleasant facts in the have-a-nice-day world we live in is going to be designated a curmudgeon. Paul Fussell nice facts world Travel sharpens the senses. Abroad one feels, sees and hears things in an abnormal way. Paul Fussell abnormal feels way Tourism requires that you see conventional things, and that you see them in a conventional way. Paul Fussell tourism conventional way The past is not the present: pretending it is corrupts art and thus both rots the mind and shrivels the imagination and conscience. Paul Fussell imagination past art Travel at its truest is thus an ironic experience. Paul Fussell truest ironic travel The balls used in top class games are generally smaller than those used in others. Paul Fussell balls games class And the ideal travel writer is consumed not just with a will to know. He is also moved by a powerful will to teach. Paul Fussell teach powerful travel Understanding the past requires pretending that you don't know the present. Paul Fussell understanding history past The more violent the body contact of the sports you watch, the lower the class. Paul Fussell class sports watches Irony is the attendant of hope and the fuel of hope is innocence. Paul Fussell irony innocence fuel If the guidebook used to be critical, today it seems largely a celebratory adjunct to the publicity operations of hotels, resorts, and even countries. Paul Fussell publicity today country A guide book is addressed to those who plan to follow the traveler, doing what he has done, but more selectively. A travel book, in its purest, is addressed to those who do not plan to follow the traveler at all, but who require the exotic or comic anomalies, wonders and scandals of the literary form romance which their own place or time cannot entirely supply. Paul Fussell romance book travel If the term discussion has always seemed to me to imply mild warnings of wasted time, workshop sets off a clangorous alarm. Paul Fussell alarms warning time There is no Apocalypse. Paul Fussell apocalypse religion Things without defense: insects, kittens, small boys. Paul Fussell youth defense boys
