Soldier Quotes - Page 31

• During the First World War, I told her, Hitler had been a runner, delivering messages between the German trenches, and he was disgusted by seeing his fellow soldiers visit French brothels. To keep the Aryan bloodlines pure,and prevent the spread of venereal disease, he commissioned an inflatable doll that Nazi troops could take into battle. Hitler himself designed the dolls to have blond hair and large breasts. The Allied firebombing of Dresden destroyed the factory before the dolls could ever go into wide distribution.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  War, Hair, Battle

  4 Copy quote

• All the common people want is to be left alone. All the ordinary soldier wants is to collect his pay and not get killed. That's why the great forces of history can be manipulated by astonishingly small groups of determined people.

  Orson Scott Card

  People, Groups, Ordinary

  Orson Scott Card (2009). “Empire”, p.93, Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• After perhaps thirty meters, just as a soldier turned around, the girl was felled. Hands were clamped upon her from behind and the boy next door brought her down. He forced her knees to the road and suffered the penalty. He collected her punches as if they were presents. Her bony hands and elbows were accepted with nothing but a few short moans. He accumulated the loud, clumsy specks of saliva and tears as if they were lovely to his face, and more important, he was able to hold her down.

  Markus Zusak

  Girl, Boys, Doors

  7 Copy quote

• The first building she reached appeared to be an old barn. Only one young guard stood before its bolted door, staring at her with wide eyes, holding up his sword in defense, She heated his sword and he dropped it, his expression barely changing, as if he had been expecting that. She held up her two swords to his throat, but they were two heavy, so she dropped one and held the other with both hands. "Where are the two Bayern boys kept?" The soldier shook his head. BURN HIM, prompted the fire. The excitement of burning was simmering in her, heating her up for more action.

  Shannon Hale

  Eye, Boys, Two

  4 Copy quote

• Anyone can practice some nonviolence, even soldiers. Some army generals, for example, conduct their operations in ways that avoid killing innocent people; this is a kind of nonviolence.

  Nhat Hanh

  Army, Practice, People

  Thich Nhat Hanh (1993). “Love in Action: Writings on Nonviolent Social Change”, p.65, Parallax Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Soldiers' graves are the greatest preachers of peace.

  Albert Schweitzer

  Graves, Preacher

  5 Copy quote

• When I heard your organization was recording testimonies, I knew I had to come. She died in my arms, saying 'I don't want to die.' That is what death is like. It doesn't matter what uniforms the soldiers are wearing. It doesn't matter how good the weapons are. I thought if everyone could see what I saw, we would never have war anymore.

  Jonathan Safran Foer

  War, Organization, Matter

  4 Copy quote

• Today a great shot for freedom was heard. I think it stands a chance of being heard forever. It marls a turning point in the history of the Jewish people. The beginning of the return to a statues of dignity we have not known for two thousand years. Yes, today was the first step back. My battle is done. Now I turn the command over to the soldiers.

  Leon Uris

  Thinking, Years, Two

  4 Copy quote

• No. No, first comes boyhood. You get to play with soldiers and spacemen, cowboys and ninjas, pirates and robots. But before you know it, all that comes to an end. And then, Remo Williams, is when the adventure begins.

  Brian K. Vaughan

  Adventure, Cowboy, Play

  4 Copy quote

• That's a nice song,' said young Sam, and Vimes remembered that he was hearing it for the first time. It's an old soldiers' song,' he said. Really, sarge? But it's about angels.' Yes, thought Vimes, and it's amazing what bits those angels cause to rise up as the song progresses. It's a real soldiers' song: sentimental, with dirty bits. As I recall, they used to sing it after battles,’ he said. 'I've seen old men cry when they sing it,’ he added. Why? It sounds cheerful.' They were remembering who they were not singing it with, thought Vimes. You'll learn. I know you will.

  Terry Pratchett

  Song, Real, Nice

  Terry Pratchett (2002). “Night watch”, Doubleday UK

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Bruno: "Why do you wear pajamas all day?" Shmuel: "The soldiers. They took all our clothes away." Bruno: "My dad's a soldier, but not the sort that takes people's clothes away."

  John Boyne

  Dad, Clothes, People

  "Fictional characters". "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas", www.imdb.com. 2008.

  75 Copy quote

  Show source

• Many nights he lay there dreaming awake of secret cafés in Mont Marte, where ivory women delved in romantic mysteries with diplomats and soldiers of fortune, while orchestras played Hungarian waltzes and the air was thick and exotic with intrigue and moonlight and adventure.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Dream, Adventure, Night

  4 Copy quote

• Very slowly, she peeked around the tree trunk. Saw a slim, petite figure, flanked by two very large, very dangerous-looking soldier of fortune types picking their way through the bodies and the rubble. "Amy?" Oh, God. It was Amy. "Get away from her," Jenna ordered, stepping out from behind the conifer, wielding the iron pan like a club. Both men stopped. Glanced at her. Glanced at each other over Amy's head. "What?" The biggest one grunted out a surly laugh. "Or you'll souffle us?" Okay. She was definitely going after him first.

  Cindy Gerard

  Men, Two, Iron

  10 Copy quote

• ...these are the problems of the modern U.S. combat soldier, the constant worry about overstepping the mark and an American media that delights in trying to knock us down. Which we have done nothing to deserve. Except, perhaps, love our country and everything it stands for.

  Marcus Luttrell

  Country, Media, Perhaps Love

  10 Copy quote

• More to the point, I know why soldiers, home from war, seldom tell their families about their exploits in more than general terms. We who survive must go on in the names of those who fall, but if we dwell too much on the vivid details of what we've witnessed of man's inhumanity to man, we simply can't go on. perseverance is impossible if we don't permit ourselves to hope.

  Dean Koontz

  Perseverance, War, Fall

  Dean Koontz (2014). “The Odd Thomas Series 7-Book Bundle: Odd Thomas, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, Odd Hours, Odd Apocalypse, Odd Interlude, Deeply Odd”, p.294, Bantam

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• Reader, do you think it is a terrible thing to hope when there is really no reason to hope at all? Or is it (as the soldier said about happiness) something that you might just as well do, since,in the end, it really makes no difference to anyone but you?

  Kate DiCamillo

  Thinking, Differences, Might

  5 Copy quote

• They hate kings, they hate priests, they hate soldiers, they hate sailors. They distrust men of science, they denounce the middle classes, they despair of working men, but they adore humanity. Only they always speak of humanity as if it were a curious foreign nation. They are dividing themselves more and more from men to exalt the strange race of mankind. They are ceasing to be human in the effort to be humane.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Kings, Hate, Men

  28 Copy quote

• What makes the strength of a soldier isn't the energy he uses trying to intimidate the other guy by sending him a whole lot of signals, it's the strength he's able to concentrate within himself, by staying centered.

  Muriel Barbery

  Guy, Trying, Energy

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Fang: "Have you guys been playing in the toxic waste again? Been bitten by a radioactive spider? Struck by lightning? Drink a super-soldier serum?"

  James Patterson

  Toxic Waste, Guy, Lightning

  "Maximum Ride: The Final Warning". Book by James Patterson, p. 43, 2008.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have neither the scholar's melancholy, which is emulation; nor the musician's, which is fantastical; nor the courtier's, which is proud; not the soldier's which is ambitious; nor the lawyer's, which is politic; nor the lady's, which is nice; nor the lover's, which is all these: but it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels, which, by often rumination, wraps me in a most humorous sadness.

  William Shakespeare

  Nice, Humorous, Sadness

  William Shakespeare (2012). “Comedies of Shakespeare in Plain and Simple English (a Modern Translation and the Original Version)”, p.747, BookCaps Study Guides

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• I hated that the soldier doll had my name. I mean, please. I didn't play with him much. He was another Christmas present from my clueless grandparents. One time when they were visiting, my grandpa asked me if G.I. Joe had been in any wars lately. I said, "No, but he and Ken got married last week." Every Christmas since then, my grandparents have sent me a check.

  James Howe

  War, Clueless, Mean

  James Howe (2005). “Totally Joe”, p.100, Simon and Schuster

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The best way to make a sort of peace, a fragile armistice to be sure, but precious all the same, with men, officers or not, is to let them bask and wallow in childish self-glorification. There’s no such thing as intelligent vanity. It’s an instinct. And you’ll never find a man who is not first and formenost vain. The role of admiring doormat is about the only one that one man is glad to tolerate in another. With these soldiers I had no need to tax my imagination.

  Louis-Ferdinand Celine

  Intelligent, Men, Vanity

  4 Copy quote

• I do not say that all lawyers are bad, but I do maintain that the general tendency is bad: standing up in a court for whichever side has paid you, affecting warmth and conviction, and doing everything you can to win the case, whatever your private opinion may be, will soon dull any fine sense of honour. The mercenary soldier is not a valued creature, but at least he risks his life, whereas these men merely risk their next fee.

  Patrick O'Brian

  Men, Winning, Risk

  Patrick O'Brian (2004). “The Complete Aubrey/Maturin Novels”, W. W. Norton & Company

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• There were eleven of us. Each more different than the next. All with the same mindset. Things weren't the way they were meant to be. It was our job to make things right. We were the soldiers of Halla. It was time for us to take it back.

  D. J. MacHale

  Jobs, Different, Way

  D.J. MacHale (2012). “Pendragon Books 6-10: The Rivers of Zadaa; The Quillan Games; The Pilgrims of Rayne; Raven Rise; The Soldiers of Halla”, p.1911, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every time we killed a thousand Bugs at a cost of one M.I. it was a net victory for the Bugs. We were learning, expensively, just how efficient a total communism can be when used by a people actually adapted to it by evolution; the Bug commisars didn't care any more about expending soldiers than we cared about expending ammo. Perhaps we could have figured this out about the Bugs by noting the grief the Chinese Hegemony gave the Russo-Anglo-American Alliance; however the trouble with 'lessons from history' is that we usually read them best after falling flat on our chins.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Grief, Fall, People

  10 Copy quote