#soldiers

There are few men more superstitious than soldiers. They are, after all, the men who live closest to death. ↗

— Mary Stewart

#closest #death #few #few men #live

When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will. ↗

— Frederic Bastiat

#cross #goods #soldiers #will

I foresee that man will resign himself each day to new abominations, and soon that only bandits and soldiers will be left. ↗

— Jorge Luis Borges

#bandits #day #each #foresee #himself

Yea ! by your works are ye justified--toil unrelieved ; Manifold labours, co-ordinate each to the sending achieved ; Discipline, not of the feet but the soul, unremitting, unfeigned ; Tortures unholy by flame and by maiming, known, faced, and disdained ; Courage that suns Only foolhardiness ; even by these, are ye worthy of your guns. ↗

— Gilbert Frankau

#guns #soldiers #suffering #trenches #war

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

#soldiers #war #weapons #death

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

#comrades #death #singing #soldiers #death

We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost. ↗

— Erich Maria Remarque

#forlorn #lost #old #soldiers #sorrow

Look now -- in all of history men have been taught that killing of men is an evil thing not to be countenanced. Any man who kills must be destroyed because this is a great sin, maybe the worst we know. And then we take a soldier and put murder in his hands and we say to him, "use it well, use it wisely." We put no checks on him. Go out and kill as many of a certain kind or classification of your brothers as you can. And we will reward you for it because it is a violation of your early training. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#soldiers #men

No man is a man until he has been a soldier. ↗

— Louis de Bernières

#soldiers #war #men

Among men, it seems, historically at any rate, the processes of coordination and disintegration follow each other with great regularity, and the index of the coordination is the measure of the disintegration which follows. There is no mob like a group of well-drilled soldiers when they have thrown off their discipline. And there is no lostness like that which comes to a man when a perfect and certain pattern has dissolved about him. There is no hater like one who has greatly loved. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#discipline #disintegration #hater #love #mob