# Quote — Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front

> Tjaden reappears. He is still quite excited and again joins the conversation, wondering just how a war gets started.
>
> "Mostly by one country badly offending another," answers Albert with a slight air of superiority.
>
> Then Tjaden pretends to be obtuse. "A country? I don't follow. A mountain in Germany cannot offend a mountain in France. Or a river, or a wood, or a field of wheat."
>
> "Are you really as stupid as that, or are you just pulling my leg?" growls Kropp. "I don't mean that at all. One people offends the other—"
>
> "Then I haven't any business here at all," replies Tjaden, "I don't feel myself offended."
>
> "Well, let me tell you," says Albert sourly, "it doesn't apply to tramps like you."
>
> "Then I can be going home right away," retorts Tjaden, and we all laugh.

- Author: [Erich Maria Remarque](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque.md)
- Book: [All Quiet on the Western Front](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque/all-quiet-on-the-western-front.md)
- Page: 206
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erich_Maria_Remarque#All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front_(1929)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque/all-quiet-on-the-western-front/tjaden-reappears-he-is-still

## More from this book

> This book is to be neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped shells, were destroyed by the war.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque/all-quiet-on-the-western-front/this-book-is.md)

> No, we are not related. No, we are not related.
>
> 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.

p. 291 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque/all-quiet-on-the-western-front/no-we-are.md)

> It is very queer that the unhappiness of the world is often brought on by small men. They are so much more energetic and uncompromising than the big fellows.

p. 10 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erich-maria-remarque/all-quiet-on-the-western-front/it-is-very.md)