Quotessence
Home / Topics / Wwii Quotes

Wwii Quotes

Browse 371 quotes about Wwii.

Related topics

Wwii Quotes

“Odd, don't you think? I have seen war, and invasions and riots. I have heard of massacres and brutalities beyond imagining, and I have kept my faith in the power of civilization to bring men back from the brink. And yet one women writes a letter, and my whole world falls to pieces. You see, she is an ordinary woman. A good one, even. That's the point ... Nothing [a recognizably bad person does] can surprise or shock me, or worry me. But she denounced Julia and sent her to her death because she resented her, and because Julia is a Jew. I thought in this simple contrast between the civilized and the barbaric, but I was wrong. It is the civilized who are the truly barbaric, and the [Nazi] Germans are merely the supreme expression of it.”

“[К]огда сегодня ставится вопрос о цене победы, он правомерен. Не надо только полагать, как многие почему-то полагают, что это обесценивание войны. Это рядовой может рассуждать — нам нужна одна победа, мы за ценой не постоим. А генерал (и чем выше генерал, тем в большей степени) так рассуждать не имеет права. Потому что он жертвует не своими жизнями.”

“It fucking matters. What I do, our kind, signal technicians—it descends straight from you guys.” “Our kind?” She tried to say it without sharing the classified parts. “The kind with blasted headphones and little cold rooms?” “Yeah, them. You. Want to know the first thing I did, coming to England? I went to Bletchley Park. Because it’s Mecca to people like us. BP and all the outstations like the one you’re at. The Greatest Generation, all these girls like you sitting in little cold rooms with your headphones on. I saw that display, the Bakelite headphones and wireless receivers and what you managed to do with them, and I felt like I was in goddamn church.”

“Trevor and his father watched as two mortal enemies from the deadliest conflict in human history shared a reunion as joyful as one between long-lost brothers.... None of those people would have ever been born if GG had done his duty and killed this man so many years ago. A snap decision, a moment of mercy, and all those lives suddenly became possible. It would not bring back Renee's family, but it was a miracle just the same.”

“I merely wish to point out that in the face of such a world you have only yourselves to rely on. You have only the decision you must make, each of you, alone. And will you contribute to the indifferent forces that ceaselessly conspire toward injustice? Or will you stand up against this endless tide and in the face of it be truly human?”

“The Nazi and Soviet regimes turned people into numbers, some of which we can only estimate, some of which we can reconstruct with fair precision. It is for us as scholars to seek those numbers and to put them into perspective. It is for us as humanists to turn the numbers back into people. If we cannot do that, then Hitler and Stalin have shaped not only our world, but our humanity.”

“Perhaps what unites this group of disparate souls is their unique sense of humor, one only an eighty or a ninety year old has. With each of those who shared their tales, I’ve smiled, chuckled, laughed out loud, and occasionally doubled over and laughed till I cried.”

“From the green valleys of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon , were a village of men and women set their faces against the horror and showed that, armed with the Spirit, the noblest hearts are always capable of overcoming and that there shadows of evil will finally be dispelled until light invades everything once more — for a new generation to believe it can change the world, or at least try.”

“It was just Franz!” “Just Franz?” Franz retorted, catching the last part as the window jerked free of the ice which held it to the window sill. “Since when did I become 'Just Franz'? I'm almost another member of your family!” Japhet leaned on the frame, not caring when cold snow seeped into his sleeves. “That's when you became 'Just Franz',” he said. “Like Ruth is 'Just Ruth'. And you ruined my drawing. I hope you're happy.”