All Quiet on the Western Front - The Harsh Reality of War and Training
Title card:
This story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war...
Himmelstoss:
You're not much to begin with, but I'll do my best. The first thing to do is to forget everything you ever knew, everything you ever learned - Forget! See. Forget what you've been, and what you think you're going to be. You're going to be soldiers, and that's all. I'll take the mother's milk out of you, I'll make you hard-boiled. I'll make soldiers out of you, or kill you!
Franz Kemmerich:
They've cut my leg off. Why didn't they tell me?...I can't walk any more.
Soldier:
They never taught us anything really useful, like how to light a cigarette in the wind, or make a fire out of wet wood, or bayonet a man in the belly.
Albert Kropp: [after discovering that his leg was amputated]
I won't be a cripple. I won't live, I tell you...I'll kill myself the first chance I get! I won't live! I won't live!
Mrs. Bäumer:
Oh, Paul. You're a soldier now, aren't you? Somehow, I don't seem to know you... Are you really here Paul? You won't disappear, will you?
Mr. Bäumer: [a truck full of coffins pulls up; a truck full of recruits pulls up]
But we know how to honor the soldier who goes on in spite of love and death. Hey, look, new coffins. And they even sent us the stuff to fill em with!
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.