Quotes

Question 1

Amazed, nameless active force

Answer 1

And then I am amazed at how that nameless active force that we call life has adapted itself to all this

Question 2

Factory, dysentery

Answer 2

The factory owners in Germany have grown rich, while dysentery racks our guts

Question 3

Flotillas, possibilities

Answer 3

Shells, gas clouds and flotillas of tanks… Dysentery, influenza… Trench, hospital, mass grave - there are no other possibilities.

Question 4

Cage

Answer 4

The front is a cage, and you have to wait nervously in it for whatever happens to you

Question 5

Whirlpool, pull

Answer 5

The front is as sinister as a whirlpool. Even when you are a long way away from its centre, out in calm waters, you can still feel its suction pulling you… slowly… meeting little resistance

Question 6

Liquid death

Answer 6

Several weeks of steady rain lie behind us - grey skies, grey, liquid earth, grey death

Question 7

Speeches, fear of death

Answer 7

While they went on writing and making speeches, we saw field hospitals and men dying: while they preached the service of the state as the greatest thing, we already knew that the fear of death is even greater. But now we were able to distinguish things clearly

Question 8

18

Answer 8

“For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity…”