War Quotes - I want to make love
“If he were allowed contact with
foreigners he would discover that they are creatures similar to himself and
that most of what he has been told about them is lies. The sealed world in
which he lives would be broken, and the fear, hatred, and self-righteousness on
which his morale depends might evaporate. It is therefore realized on all sides
that however ofter Persia, or Egypt, or Java, or Ceylon may change hands, the
main frontiers must never be crossed by anything except bombs.”
― George Orwell, 1984
“I want to make love, but my hair
smells of war and running and running.”
― Warsan Shire, Teaching My
Mother How to Give Birth
“War seems like a fine adventure,
the greatest most of them will ever know. Then they get a taste of battle.
For some, that one taste is
enough to break them. Others go on for years, until they lose count of all the
battles they have fought in, but even a man who has survived a hundred fights
can break in his hundred-and-first. Brothers watch their brothers die, fathers
lose their sons, friends see their friends trying to hold their entrails in
after they’ve been gutted by an axe.
They see the lord who led them
there cut down, and some other lord shouts that they are his now, They take the
wound, and when that’s still half-healed they take another. There is never
enough to eat, their shoes fall to pieces from marching, their clothes are torn
and rotting, and half of them are shitting in their breeches from drinking bad
water.
If they want new boots or a
warmer cloak or maybe a rusted iron half helm, they need to take them from a
corpse, and before long they are stealing from the living too, from the small
folk whose land they’re fighting in, men very like the men they used to be.
They slaughter their sheep and steal their chickens, and from there it’s just a
short step to carrying off their daughters too. And one day they look around
and realize all their friends and kin are gone, that they are fighting beside
strangers beneath a banner that they hardly recognize. They don’t know where
they are or how to get back home and the lord they’re fighting for does not
know their names, yet here he comes, shouting for them to form up, to make a
line with their spears and scythes and sharpened hoes, to stand their ground. And
the knights come down on them, faceless men clad in all steel, and the iron
thunder of their charge seems to fill the world.
And the man breaks.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Feast for
Crows
“Oskar Scultetus said, “Two of my
men have been ordered to cut two of the guy wires holding the transmission
tower in place, and they are already doing so using oxy-acetylene torches. When
they have done it, the tower will fall!”
― Michael G. Kramer, His
Forefathers and Mick
“I know. I was there. I saw the
great void in your soul, and you saw mine.”
― Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong
“Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul”
― Bob Dylan, The Bob Dylan
Scrapbook: 1956-1966
“The American generals could only
think in terms of large armies and huge battles. They believed or hoped that an
enemy who chose to hide in jungles and tunnels would quickly be flushed out by
American fire-power and then die in open battle.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious
Enemy
“Once more unto the breach, dear
friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our
English dead.
In peace there's nothing so
becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows
in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the
tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the
blood,
Disguise fair nature with
hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible
aspect;
Let pry through the portage of
the head
Like the brass cannon; let the
brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled
rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded
base,
Swill'd with the wild and
wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the
nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up
every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you
noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers
of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many
Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn
till even fought
And sheathed their swords for
lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now
attest
That those whom you call'd
fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser
blood,
And teach them how to war. And
you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England,
show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let
us swear
That you are worth your breeding;
which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean
and base,
That hath not noble lustre in
your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds
in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The
game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this
charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and
Saint George!”
― William Shakespeare, Henry V
“The storms come and go, the
waves crash overhead, the big fish eat the little fish, and I keep on paddling.
(Varys)”
― George R.R. Martin, A Clash of
Kings
“Ceres wanted a united front in
the plant war."
"The plant war," Percy
said. "You're going to arm all the little grapes with tiny assault
rifles?”
― Rick Riordan, The Mark of
Athena
“The artillery fire which helped
in holding off the enemy advance against the Australian positions appeared to
be getting always closer. A radio operator called Vic Grice somehow replaced
the antenna on Buick’s radio. That had been shot off, thus rendering the radio
in-operational.”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious
Enemy
“War is catastrophe. It breaks
families in irretrievable pieces. But those who are gone are not necessarily
lost.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Salt to the Sea
“The Minister of Army answered,
“Bob, I thought that you would have been an astute and clever enough a
politician to think of this yourself, but seeing how you have asked me, I suggest
that you wait until eight in the night on Thursday 29/April/1965 to announce
that Australia will send the First Battalion Royal Australian Regiment to fight
in South Vietnam. By you waiting until the evening of 29/April/1965 to announce
this in Parliament, the labour opposition leader of Arthur Caldwell and his
deputy leader of Gough Whitlam should be absent, as will be most of the entire
parliament, because the following day is the beginning of a long week-end. You
are legally not required to give advanced warning to the house, so you can
easily get away with this!”
― Michael G. Kramer, A Gracious
Enemy & After the War Volume One
“Anyone in any walk of life who
is content with mediocrity is untrue to himself and to American tradition.”
― George S. Patton Jr.
