For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress -- to the future.
Erich Maria RemarqueRead
Trenches, hospitals, the common grave--there are no other possibilities.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the harsh realities of war, depicting the grim outcomes it entails for soldiers.
Erich Maria Remarque's quote starkly illustrates the inevitable suffering and death that accompany war, suggesting that the only outcomes for soldiers are dire—whether it be the grueling conditions in trenches, the despair of hospitals, or the finality of death. This bleak perspective highlights the futility of conflict and the human cost involved, urging readers to confront the brutal truths behind warfare.
Themes
WarSufferingDeathSoldiersTrenchHospitalFutility
In practice
Example use cases
During a remembrance day speech to honor veterans, one might say this quote to emphasize the true cost of war.
More from Erich Maria Remarque
All quotes →They are more human and more brotherly towards one another, it seems to me, than we are. But perhaps that is merely because they feel themselves to be more unfortunate than us.
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Anyway the war is over so far as they are concerned. But to wait for dysentery is not much of a life either.
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We are little flames poorly sheltered by frail walls against the storm of dissolution and madness, in which we flicker and sometimes almost go out…we creep in upon ourselves and with big eyes stare into the night…and thus we wait for morning.
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There was only the broad square with the scattered dim moons of the street lamps and with the monumental stone arch which receded into the mist as though it would prop up the melancholy sky and protect beneath itself the faint lonely flame on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which looked like the last grave of mankind in the midst of night and loneliness.
Erich Maria RemarqueRead
(Ravic speaking of a butterfly caught in the Louvre) In the morning it would search for flowers and life and the light honey of blossoms and would not find them and later it would fall asleep on millennial marble, weakened by then, until the grip of the delicate, tenacious feet loosened and it fell, a thin leaf of premature autumn.
Erich Maria RemarqueRead
Similar quotes
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