I felt the first soft glow of intoxication that makes the blood warmer and spreads an illusion of adventure over uncertainty.
Erich Maria RemarqueThe music enchanted the air. It was like the south wind, like a warm night, like swelling sails beneath the stars, completely and utterly unreal... It made everything spacious and colourful, the dark stream of life seemed pulsing in it; there were no burdens any more, no limits; there existed only glory and melody and love, so that one simply could not realize that, at the same time as this music was, outside there ruled poverty and torment and despair.
Erich Maria RemarqueIt'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 RemarqueNo matter how improbable an assertion is, if it is made with enough assurance it has an affect.
Erich Maria RemarqueA man can gasp out his life beside you-and you feel none of it. Pity, Sympathy, sure-but you don't feel the pain. Your belly is whole and that's what counts. A half-yard away someone's world is snuffled out in roaring agony-and you feel nothing. That's the misery of the world.
Erich Maria RemarqueKat and Kropp get in an argument over the war as they rest from an hourโs worth of drill (occasioned by Tjadenโs not saluting a major properly). Kat believes the war would be over if leaders gave all the participants โthe same grub and the same pay,โ as he says in a rhyme. Kropp believes the leaders of each country should fight each other in an arena to settle the war; the โwrongโ people currently do the fighting.
Erich Maria Remarque