-
Hair-peak soldier: And manufacturers. They get rich.
[murmurs of agreement]
Albert Kropp: I think it's more a kind of fever. Nobody wants it in particular, and then all at once, there it is. We didn't want it. The English didn't want it. And here we are fighting.
-
Albert Kropp: Ah, the French certainly deserve to be punished for starting this war.
Detering: Everybody says it's somebody else.
Tjaden: Well. how do they start a war?
Albert Kropp: Well, one country offends another.
Tjaden: How could one country offend another?
Tjaden: You mean there's a mountain over in Germany gets mad at a field over in France?
[Everyone laughs]
Albert Kropp: Well, stupid, one people offends another.
Tjaden: Oh, well, if that's it, I shouldn't be here at all. I don't feel offended.
Katczinsky: It don't apply to tramps like you.
Tjaden: Good. Then I could be goin' home right away.
Paul Bäumer: Ah, you just try it.
Katczinsky: Yeah. You wanna get shot?
Tjaden: The kaiser and me...
[the others laugh]
Tjaden: Me and the kaiser felt just alike about this war. We didn't either of us want any war, so I'm going home. He's there already.
Hair-peak soldier: Somebody must have wanted it. Maybe it was the English. No, I don't want to shoot any Englishman. I never saw one 'til I came up here. And I suppose most of them never saw a German 'til *they* came up here. No, I'm sure *they* weren't asked about it.
Paul Bäumer: No.
Detering: Well, it must be doing somebody some good.
Detering: Not me and the kaiser.
Hair-peak soldier: I think maybe the kaiser wanted a war.
Tjaden: You leave us out of this!
Katczinsky: I don't see that. The kaiser's *got* everything he needs.
Hair-peak soldier: Well, he never had a war before. Every full-grown emperor needs one war to make him famous. Why, that's history.
Paul Bäumer: Yeah, generals, too. They need war.
Slim Summerville
Extended Reading
All Quiet on the Western Front quotes
