Anybody who notices unpleasant facts in the have-a-nice-day world we live in is going to be designated a curmudgeon.

Wars damage the civilian society as much as they damage the enemy. Soldiers never get over it.

Travelers learn not just foreign customs and curious cuisines and unfamiliar beliefs and novel forms of government. They learn, if they are lucky, humility.

To get home you had to end the war. To end the war was the reason you fought it. The only reason.

The middles cleave to euphemisms not just because they're an aid in avoiding facts. They like them also because they assist their social yearnings towards pomposity. This is possible because most euphemisms permit the speaker to multiply syllables, and the middle class confuses sheer numerousness with weight and value.

Those who fought know a secret about themselves, and it is not very nice.

Understanding the past requires pretending that you don't know the present.