Quotes
"The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages. As a precaution to ever committing major acts of evil it is our solemn duty never to do what we're told, this is the only way we can be sure." (p. 51)
In our new age of terrifying, lethal gadgets, which supplanted so swiftly the old one, the first great aggressive war, if it should come, will be launched by suicidal little madmen pressing an electronic button. Such a war will not last long and none will ever follow it. There will be no conquerors and no conquests, but only the charred bones of the dead on an uninhabited planet. (Preface)
War puts burdens on people without caring whether they are ready for them or not.
p. 180
I would say that happiness lies in serving the Land. And I would say that there is no happiness in times of war.
p. 146
You have to understand what you’re fighting for. Otherwise, you were an animal—a brave animal, maybe, but an animal all the same.
p. 530
“Glad you’re back safe. I heard you were wounded—happy it wasn’t too serious.”
“Yeah.” The only wound that wasn’t serious was the one that happened to the other guy.
p. 571
In war, proving the other guy was wrong often meant proving he had no business breathing.
p. 433
“Is it better to get shot in a war your side wins than in one where you lose?” O’Doull persisted.
“Better not to get shot at all,” McDougald said, a great and obvious truth to which too many people who went down in history as statesmen were blind.
p. 294
“I’m not afraid,” Edith said. “God will watch over all of us. I know He’s on our side.” Everybody in every war since the world began was convinced God was on his side. Half the people in every war since the world began ended up being wrong.
p. 222
“Did anybody know what a nasty war this would be before they went and started it?”
“Does anybody ever?”
p. 616
Only thing worse than fighting a war and winning is fighting a war and losing.
p. 294
Cincinnatus Driver hadn’t been under fire for more than twenty-five years. He’d forgotten how much fun it wasn’t.
p. 43
