World War I Quotes
A curated collection of the best quotes about World War I.
Top Quotes
“Gott strafe England.”
“Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?”
“In war-time the word patriotism means suppression of truth.”
“This is not a peace. It is an armistice for 20 years.”
“What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.”
“Wikipedia: World War I”
“Nothing will bring American sympathy along with us so much as American blood shed in the field.”
“The lamps are going out all over Europe: we shall not see them lit again in our life-time."”
“It have been one of the richest experiences of my life...feeling that I was being really useful to the boys on the other side.”
“No compromise on the main purpose; no peace till victory; no pact with unrepentant wrong -- that is the Declaration of July 4th, 1918.”
“The First World War had begun – imposed on the statesmen of Europe by railway timetables. It was an unexpected climax to the railway age.”
“The protagonists of 1914 were sleepwalkers, watchful but unseeing, haunted by dreams, yet blind to the reality of the horror they were about to bring into the world.”
“For all the astounding growth in man’s power, there had been no parallel increase in responsibility. The caveman with the club was now a caveman with a machine gun.”
“The First World War/It came and it went/The reason for fightin'/I never did get/But I learned to accept it/Accept it with pride/For you don’t count the dead/When God’s on your side”
“I think a curse should rest on me — because I love this war. I know it's smashing and shattering the lives of thousands every moment — and yet — I can't help it — I enjoy every second of it.”
“the big war of 1914-1918 was not my war. It was plainly not a war for democracy but for plutocracy; not for peace but for plunder, and to make our country military-minded. It was capitalism's war-not mine.”
“Either Germanic ideals or Anglo-Saxon ones must prevail. Justice, freedom, honor, and virtue will triumph, or the worship of money. There can be only one victor in this struggle. German ideals are at stake!”
“At eleven o’clock this morning came to an end the cruellest and most terrible War that has ever scourged mankind. I hope we may say that thus, this fateful morning, came to an end all wars.”
“To me the war was an abomination, a madness, a crime, and from the first moment onwards–more out of impulse than reflection–I inwardly rejected it and could never reconcile myself with it up to this very moment.”
“Among novels dealing actually with the war, I know of few that come even near success. The shock was too great, the shadow too heavy, the horror too vast, for contemporary artists. Their consciousness would not accept it, still less arrange it.”