Quotes from The Unknown Soldier

Väinö Linna ·  338 pages

Rating: (3.3K votes)


“Liberty medals...Are they trying to bribe me with coloured ribbons? I wouldn't kill a man for one of those things. Or go and be killed. Any shooting I do is to save my own life, and not for a ribbon and a hunk of bronze. [says Mäkelä]”
― Väinö Linna, quote from The Unknown Soldier


“Hän hymähti pari kertaa katkerasti, ei niinkään paljon valtiollisesta vihasta kuin sen vuoksi, että hänen kengässään oli hiekkaa, eikä hän voinut jäädä poistamaan sitä, koska olisi jäänyt toisista liian kauas.”
― Väinö Linna, quote from The Unknown Soldier


“―Viipuri vallattu, kähisi hän eteenpäin, huomaamatta muuttaa äänensävyään, niin että edelläkulkeva mies sai ilmoituksen vihan pakahduttamalla äänellä, ikään kuin pahinta, mitä Lehto tiesi maailmassa olevan, olisi ollut Viipurin valtaus.”
― Väinö Linna, quote from The Unknown Soldier


“Kerran he joutuivat jättämään haavoittuneen, perääntyessään eräältä kukkulalta. Kun he valtasivat mäen takaisin, löysivät he miehen alusvaatteilleen riisuttuna, pistimen reikä kyljessä. Muuan Kariluodon konepistoolimies ampui siitä hyvästä ohimennen, kainalostaan tähdäten, kolme antautunutta. Kaksi päivää myöhemmin sama mies katkesi keskeltä kranaatin täysosumasta. Kuolema lakkasi olemasta moraalinen kysymys”
― Väinö Linna, quote from The Unknown Soldier


About the author

Väinö Linna
Born place: in Urjala, Finland
Born date December 20, 1920
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“It stung God. They say his spinal cord ran straight out of the sun.”
― Anne Carson, quote from Plainwater: Essays and Poetry


“Shergahn and friend lay like poleaxed steers, and the Daranfelian's greasy hair was thick with potatoes, carrots, gravy, and chunks of beef. His companion had less stew in his hair, but an equally large lump was rising fast, and Brandark flipped his improvised club into the air, caught it in proper dipping position, and filled it once more from the pot without even glancing at them. He raised the ladle to his nose, inhaled deeply, and glanced at the cook with an impudent twitch of his ears.
"Smells delicious," he said while the laughter started up all around the fire. "I imagine a bellyful of this should help a hungry man sleep. Why, just look what a single ladle of it did for Shergahn!”
― David Weber, quote from Oath of Swords


“Hey beautiful,” Trey answers, sounding exhausted.

“Hey you.” My heart clenches in my chest from the sound of his voice.

He breathes heavily. “I’m sitting here, shirt off, beer in hand, TV on, and I feel so fucking empty.” The image of him lying on the couch we bought together, his beautiful body stretched out across the cushions, makes me ache in places I haven’t ached in a long time. I want him so bad. “I’m missing my girl tucked against my chest.”

“I would give anything to be there right now,” I answer honestly.

Sighing, he asks, “Remember that piece of spaghetti I threw on the ceiling the night before you left?”

“Yeah.” I smile to myself, thinking about that night. Trey insisted upon making spaghetti and meatballs for me. He came home with a grocery bag full of pasta, spaghetti sauce, and pre-made meatballs. When cooking the noodles, he told me an “old wives’ tale.” He said if you throw the noodles to the ceiling and it sticks, then the pasta is done. What he didn’t realize is if that pasta never comes down, you overcooked it.

“It fell this morning. Scared the shit out of me. I thought it was a spider trying to bury itself in my hair while I was making eggs.”

A laugh bursts out of me as I think about Trey bouncing around the apartment, spaghetti in hair thinking it was a spider. “Oh no. Miss Pasta-relli finally fell?”

“She did and that squirrely bitch knew exactly what she was doing, too. Trying to scare the crap right out of me.”

“Seems like she did.” I chuckle.

“But I got the last laugh when I turned the trash compactor on. Her little pasta self squiggled down the drain. Revenge never felt so sweet.”

Still laughing, I shake my head. “Is this what your life has come to? Fighting with old, overcooked pasta?”

“I’m telling you, Amelia, with you gone, I’ve lost my damn mind.”

“Sounds like it”
― Meghan Quinn, quote from The Other Brother


“Etsuko had failed in this important way—she had not taught her children to hope, to believe in the perhaps-absurd possibility that they might win. Pachinko was a foolish game, but life was not.”
― Min Jin Lee, quote from Pachinko


“I feel like...before, I had one way of looking at things, and now, I have a million possibilities, and I get to choose.”
― Ruth Emmie Lang, quote from Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance


Interesting books

Vampire Academy
(476.1K)
Vampire Academy
by Richelle Mead
The Poisonwood Bible
(582.3K)
The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver
Siddhartha
(450.3K)
Siddhartha
by Hermann Hesse
Atlas Shrugged
(311.8K)
Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
Don Quixote
(168K)
Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
The Golden Compass
(1.1M)
The Golden Compass
by Philip Pullman

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.