Erich Maria Remarque Quotes

We march up, moody or good-tempered soldiers — we reach the zone where the front begins and become on the instant human animals.

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.

It is when one is alone that one begins to observe Nature and to love her.

Wir sind keine Jugend mehr. Wir wollen die Welt nicht mehr stürmen. Wir sind Flüchtende. Wir flüchten vor uns. Vor unserem Leben. Wir waren achtzehn Jahre und begannen die Welt und das Dasein zu lieben; wir mußten darauf schießen. Die erste Granate, die einschlug, traf in unser Herz. Wir sind abgeschlossen vom Tätigen, vom Streben, vom Fortschritt. Wir glauben nicht mehr daran; wir glauben an den Krieg.

A word of command has made these silent figures our enemies; a word of command might transform them into our friends.

He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front.
He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.