# Quote — Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That

> Hardly one soldier in a hundred was inspired by religious feeling of even the crudest kind. It would have been difficult to remain religious in the trenches even if one had survived the irreligion of the training battalion at home.

- Author: [Robert Graves](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves.md)
- Book: [Goodbye to All That](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/goodbye-to-all-that.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Graves#Goodbye_to_All_That_(1929)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/goodbye-to-all-that/hardly-one-soldier

## More from this book

> Cuinchy bred rats. They came up from the canal, fed on the plentiful corpses, and multiplied exceedingly. While I stayed here with the Welsh, a new officer joined the company... When he turned in that night, he heard a scuffling, shone his torch on the bed, and found two rats on his blanket tussling for the possession of a severed hand.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/goodbye-to-all-that/cuinchy-bred-rats.md)

> James Burford, collier and fitter, was the oldest soldier of all. When I first spoke to him in the trenches, he said: "Excuse me, sir, will you explain what this here arrangement is on the side of my rifle?" "That's the safety catch. Didn't you do a musketry-course at the depôt?" "No, sir, I was a re-enlisted man, and I spent only a fortnight there. The old Lee-Metford didn't have no safety-catch." I asked him when he had last fired a rifle. "In Egypt in 1882," he said. "Weren't you in the South African War?" "I tried to re-enlist, but they told me I was too old, sir... My real age is sixty-three."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/goodbye-to-all-that/james-burford-collier.md)

> Professor Edgeworth, of All Souls', avoided conversational English, persistently using words and phrases that one expects to meet only in books. One evening, Lawrence returned from a visit to London, and Edgeworth met him at the gate. "Was it very caliginous in the metropolis?""Somewhat caliginous, but not altogether inspissated," Lawrence replied gravely.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/goodbye-to-all-that/professor-edgeworth-of-all.md)