We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. Erich Maria Remarque More Quotes by Erich Maria Remarque More Quotes From Erich Maria Remarque We want to live at any price; so we cannot burden ourselves with feelings which, though they might be ornamental enough in peace-time, would be out of place here. Erich Maria Remarque would-be want feelings A hospital alone shows what war is. Erich Maria Remarque hospitality war peace I had the feeling of slipping down a smooth bottomless pit. It had nothing to do with Breuer and the people. It had nothing to do with Pat even. It was the melancholy secret that reality can arouse desires but never satisfy them; that love begins with a human being but does not end in him; and that everything can be there: a human being, love, happiness, life — and that yet in some terrible way it is always too little, and grows ever less the more it seems. Erich Maria Remarque feelings reality people Do I walk? Have I feet still? I raise my eyes, I let them move round, and turn myself with them, one circle, one circle, and I stand in the midst. All is as usual. Only the Militiaman Stanislaus Katczinsky has died. Then I know nothing more. Erich Maria Remarque circles eye moving Heaven Has No Favorites Erich Maria Remarque heaven We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers - we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals. Erich Maria Remarque march soldier animal -Why does a man live? -In order to think about it. Erich Maria Remarque men order thinking The war has ruined us for everything. Erich Maria Remarque ruined war I, too, am going to go away soon,' she says, 'I am weary and weary of my weariness. Everything is beginning to be a little empty and full of leave-taking and melancholy and waiting. Erich Maria Remarque going-away waiting littles What comfort there is in the skin of someone you love! Erich Maria Remarque someone-you-love skins comfort The wisest were just the poor and simple people. They knew the war to be a misfortune, whereas those who were better off, and should have been able to see more clearly what the consequences would be, were beside themselves with joy. Erich Maria Remarque simple should-have war Sweet dreams though the guns are booming. Erich Maria Remarque gun dream sweet It's all rot that they put in the war-news about the good humour of the troops, how they are arranging dances almost before they are out of the front-line. We don't act like that because we are in a good humour: we are in a good humour because otherwise we should go to pieces. Erich Maria Remarque troops news war I want that quiet rapture again. I want to feel the same powerful, nameless urge that I used to feel when I turned to my books. The breath of desire that then arose from the coloured backs of the books, shall fill me again, melt the heavy, dead lump of lead that lies somewhere in me and waken again the impatience of the future, the quick joy in the world of thought, it shall bring back again the lost eagerness of my youth. I sit and wait. Erich Maria Remarque powerful book lying We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost. Erich Maria Remarque men believe children Little by little things began to assume a new aspect. The sense of insecurity vanished, words came of themselves, I was no longer so painfully conscious of everything I said. I drank on and felt the great soft wave approach and embrace me; the dark hour began to fill with pictures and stealthily the noiseless procession of dreams appeared again superimposed on the dreary, grey landscape of existence. Erich Maria Remarque insecurity dark dream I felt the first soft glow of intoxication that makes the blood warmer and spreads an illusion of adventure over uncertainty. Erich Maria Remarque adventure blood firsts Let the months and years come, they can take nothing from me, they can take nothing more. I am so alone, and so without hope that I can confront them without fear. The life that has borne me through these years is still in my hands and my eyes. Whether I have subdued it, I know not. But so long as it is there it will seek its own way out, heedless of the will that is within me." -All Quiet On The Western Front, Chapter 12 Erich Maria Remarque eye hands years We lie under the network of arching shells and live in a suspense of uncertainty. If a shot comes, we can duck, that is all; we neither know nor can determine where it will fall." - All Quiet On The Western Front, Ch. 6 Erich Maria Remarque ducks lying fall The miracle has passed me by; it has touched but not changed me; I still have the same name and I know I will probably bear it until the end of my days; I am no phoenix; resurrection is not for me; I have tried to fly but I am tumbling like a dazzled, awkward rooster back to earth, back behind the barbed wires. Erich Maria Remarque phoenix miracle names
