{
  "type": "book",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "title": "The Young Lions",
  "slug": "the-young-lions",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/irwin-shaw/the-young-lions",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/irwin-shaw/the-young-lions.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/irwin-shaw/the-young-lions.md",
  "author": {
    "name": "Irwin Shaw",
    "slug": "irwin-shaw",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/irwin-shaw"
  },
  "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/hodder-paperbacks/irwin-shaw/the-young-lions_978-03-4095-391-4.jpg",
  "quotes_count": 3,
  "quotes": [
    {
      "id": "c3be621a-5784-4e62-ae23-6bec99667be4",
      "slug": "do-not-boast",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/irwin-shaw/the-young-lions/do-not-boast",
      "text": "Do not boast to me in your newspapers of the thousands of tons of bombs you have let loose at random on the unhappy land of Germany, because I will tell you that you have let loose those bombs on me, on your church, on yourselves and on your God. Tell me, rather, how you have wept for the single German soldier you have been forced to kill as he stood before you armed and dangerous, and I will say, you are my defender and the defender of my church and my England.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "war",
          "slug": "war",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war"
        },
        {
          "name": "empathy",
          "slug": "empathy",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/empathy"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Irwin_Shaw#The_Young_Lions_(1948)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:26"
    },
    {
      "id": "5e3a7be8-96c5-4fec-9dcc-7ea96d679f47",
      "slug": "kill-if-you",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/irwin-shaw/the-young-lions/kill-if-you",
      "text": "Kill, if you must, because in our weakness and in our error, we have found no other road to peace, but kill remorsefully, kill with a sense of sorrow, kill with economy for the immortal souls who leave this life in battle, carry mercy in your cartridge cases, forgiveness in your knapsacks, kill without revenge, because vengeance is not yours but the Lord’s, kill, knowing that each life you spend makes your life that much the poorer.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "war",
          "slug": "war",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war"
        },
        {
          "name": "forgiveness",
          "slug": "forgiveness",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/forgiveness"
        },
        {
          "name": "revenge",
          "slug": "revenge",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/revenge"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Irwin_Shaw#The_Young_Lions_(1948)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:26"
    },
    {
      "id": "1d3bf52f-80cd-483b-9b69-f2cb16c6d034",
      "slug": "we-see-our",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/irwin-shaw/the-young-lions/we-see-our",
      "text": "We see our cities crumble under the enemy’s bombs, and we mourn for our children struck at their early tasks by the enemy’s bullets, and we strike back, cruelly and wildly, from the seabed of our hatred, at his cities and his children. The enemy is more savage than the tiger, hungrier than the shark, crueler than the wolf; in honor and in defense of our moderate way of life, we stand up to him and combat him, but in doing so we out-tiger him, out-shark the shark, over-wolf the wolf. Will we at the end of all this then pretend to ourselves that the victory is ours? The thing we defend perishes from our victory as it would never perish from our defeat.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "war",
          "slug": "war",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war"
        },
        {
          "name": "hatred",
          "slug": "hatred",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred"
        },
        {
          "name": "cruelty",
          "slug": "cruelty",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Irwin_Shaw#The_Young_Lions_(1948)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:26"
    }
  ]
}