260 pages
Rating: (8K votes)
“My despair is less despair than boredom and loneliness.”
― quote from Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles
“I have gone to war and now I can issue my complaint. I can sit on my porch and complain all day. And you must listen. Some of you will say to me: You signed the contract, you crying bitch, and you fought in a war because of your signature, no one held a gun to your head. This is true, but because I signed the contract and fulfilled my obligation to fight one of America’s wars, I am entitled to speak, to say, I belong to a fucked situation.”
― quote from Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles
“It occured to me that we will never be young again.”
― quote from Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles
“Every war is different. Every war is the same.”
― quote from Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles
“Some wars are unavoidable and need well be fought, but this doesn't erase warfare's waste. Sorry, we must say to the mothers whose son's die horribly. This will never end. Sorry.”
― quote from Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles
“My combat action has commenced... I've pissed my pants, but only a little.”
― quote from Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles
“During the few months Troy had been back home, he’d told his friends about us, and so we quickly eased into the conversation as though we’d all known each other for many years. They embarrassed us with great thanks for having served overseas. They recounted combat events Troy had told them, and we realized by the context of their stories that Troy had made us heroes for his friends because we’d been heroes to him. At this point I was the saddest I’d yet been over Troy’s passing, because the true friend from war is the friend who obliterates his own story by telling the stories of others.”
― quote from Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles
“It dosnt matter how many mr. and mrs. johnsons are anti war- the actuall killers who know how to use the weapons are not.”
― quote from Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles
“Now I often think of the first time I received artillery fire, and the subsequent obliteration of the enemy observation post. I'll never know how many men manned the OP, but in memory I fix the number at two, and though at the time I was angry that the pompus captain took the handset from me and stole m y kills, I have lately been thankful he insisted on calling the fire mission, ans sometimes when I am feeling hopeful or even religious, I think that buy taking my two kills the pompous captain handed me life, some extra moments of living for myself or that I can offer others, though I have no idea to use or disuse these extra moments, or if I've wasted them already.”
― quote from Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles
“When you fail, you disgrace yourself and others. When you succeed, be proud and others will be proud for you.”
― quote from Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles
“It was like a dream, a beautiful, soothing dream of late autumn: low, gray skies, smell of woodsmoke, fallen leaves crackling beneath my feet, and somewhere out there, in the farmsteads and plantations ahead of me, swift retribution! Freedom! The bloody work of the Lord!”
― Russell Banks, quote from Cloudsplitter
“Un giorno dirai a te stesso. Sono stanco, vado a sedermi, e andrai a sederti. Poi dirai a te stesso, Ho fame, ora mi alzo e mi preparo da mangiare. Ma non ti alzerai. Dirai a te stesso. Ho fatto male a sedermi, ma visto che mi sono seduto resterò seduto ancora un poco, poi mi alzerò e mi preparerò da mangiare. Ma non ti alzerai e non ti preparerai da mangiare. / Guarderai il muro per un poco, poi dirai a te stesso, Ora chiuderò gli occhi, forse dormirò un poco, dopo andrà meglio, e li chiuderai. E quando li riaprirai il muro non ci sarà più. Intorno a te ci sarà il vuoto infinito, tutti i morti di tutti i tempi non basterebbero, risuscitando, a colmarlo, e sarai come un sassolino in mezzo alla steppa. / Sì, un giorno saprai cosa vuol dire, sarai come me, solo che tu non avrai nessuno, perchè tu non avrai avuto pietà di nessuno e non ci sarà più nessuno di cui aver pietà.”
― Samuel Beckett, quote from Endgame
“Remember this always: to have something, sometimes you must be willing to lose it. Love must live free, jel’enedra. Love must ever live free.”
― Mercedes Lackey, quote from Oathbreakers
“When besieged, I’m calm as a baby. When all hell breaks loose, I’m collected and cool.”
― Eugene H. Peterson, quote from The Message Remix (Bible in Contemporary Language)
“But first of all he is a woodsman, and you aren't a woodsman unless you have such a feeling for topography that you can look at the earth and see what it would look like without any woods or covering on it. It's something like the gift all men wish for when they or young-- or old-- of being able to look through a woman's clothes and see her body, possibly even a little of her character.”
― Norman Maclean, quote from Young Men and Fire
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