Home / Quotes / Quote by Paul Fussell

Quote by Paul Fussell

“The worst thing about war was the sitting around and wondering what you were doing morally.”

Quote by Paul Fussell

Author

Paul Fussell was an American historian renowned for his profound insights into 20th-century American society and culture. His works explored American military history, consumerism, and the changes in post-war American life. more

You May Also Like

“Travel sharpens the senses. Abroad one feels, sees and hears things in an abnormal way.”

Way Feels Senses Abnormal

Author:Paul Fussell

“Anyone telling about his travels must be a liar, . . . for if a traveler doesn't visit his narrative with the spirit and techniques of fiction, no one will want to hear it.”

Ifs Want Spirit Fiction Technique Narrative Liars Traveler Travel Writing

Author:Paul Fussell

“If the guidebook used to be critical, today it seems largely a celebratory adjunct to the publicity operations of hotels, resorts, and even countries.”

Ifs Country Seems Today Used Critical Used To Be Operations Hotel Resorts Publicity

Author:Paul Fussell

“To get home you had to end the war. To end the war was the reason you fought it. The only reason.”

War Ends Reason Home

Book:Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War

Source: Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War

“I am working on a book urging the beating to death of baby whales using the dead bodies of baby seals.”

Book Body Baby Whales Seals

Book:Class: A Guide Through the American Status System

Source: Class: A Guide Through the American Status System

“In battle, topography is fate.”

Fate Battle Topography

Book:An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy

Source: An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy

“There is something within our biological structure that screams out and says it is morally wrong for the old to outlive the young. This is one of the times when God doesn’t seem to make sense. This is the worst that life gets.”

Seems Young Worst Structure Make Sense Scream

Book:Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War

Source: Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War

“Vainglory, however, no matter how much medieval Christianity insisted it was a sin, is a motor of mankind, no more eradicable than sex.”

Matter Sex Sin Christianity Mankind Motor Medieval

Book:A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

Source: A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

“No less a bold and pugnacious figure than Winston Churchill broke down and was unable to finish his remarks at the sendoff of the British Expeditionary Force into the maelstrom of World War I in Europe.”

World War Force Figures Europe Down And British Broke War Of The Worlds World War I Remarks Maelstrom

Author:Barbara Tuchman

“One constant among the elements of 1914—as of any era—was the disposition of everyone on all sides not to prepare for the harder alternative, not to act upon what they suspected to be true.”

Sides Elements Harder Constant Being True Alternatives Eras Disposition

Book:The Guns of August: The Outbreak of World War I; Barbara W. Tuchman's Great War Series

Source: The Guns of August: The Outbreak of World War I; Barbara W. Tuchman's Great War Series