Harry Leslie Smith > Quotes

“In November, when our nation remembers her fallen soldiers and honours the lost youth of my generation, the Prime Minister, government leaders and the hollow men of business affix paper poppies to their lapels and afford the dead of war two minutes' silence. Afterwards, they speak golden platitudes about the struggle and the heroism of that time. Yet the words they speak are meaningless because they have surrendered the values my generation built after the horrors of the Second World War.”
― Harry Leslie Smith, Harry's Last Stand: How the world my generation built is falling down, and what we can do to save it

“The sepia tone of November has become blood-soaked with paper poppies festooning the lapels of our politicians, newsreaders and business leaders … I will no longer allow my obligation as a veteran to remember those who died in the great wars to be co-opted by current or former politicians to justify our folly in Iraq, our morally dubious war on terror and our elimination of one’s right to privacy.”
― Harry Leslie Smith

“There are so few people left alive from back then, you may as well be talking to them about the Black Death. Nobody recalls the shite in the 30s and that were fucking horrible. For Christ's sake, nobody wants to remember the shite in the 80s. It's all forgotten and swept under the rug by the newspapers and the BBC. They get nostalgic about the music, but they never want to mention the misery. It's all shite. As for the bloody Second World War, the politicians only talk about it when they need an excuse to go pissing about in one of those fucking Muslim countries.”
― Harry Leslie Smith, Harry's Last Stand: How the world my generation built is falling down, and what we can do to save it

“At what point does what you give up while fighting a war mean winning it no longer matters?”
― Harry Leslie Smith, Harry's Last Stand: How the world my generation built is falling down, and what we can do to save it

“They were not constructed for a life of contemplation or quiet reflection. Discomfort was incorporated into the design. It made sure the occupants were never able to relax or get a moment alone. It keeps them keen for work was the landlords’ mantra when they erected these match stick hovels across England’s hills and dales.”
― Harry Leslie Smith, The Empress of Australia: A Post-War Memoir

“I find our cities forlorn places in the evening because the canopy of night is obscured by steel and glass condo palaces built on the hubris of speculators' credit. From them a sad luminescence is emitted from the glow of millions of flat-screen televisions that burn reality TV programmes, news updates and sitcoms into our collective consciousness. Their light is like the campfires of ancient men, used to ward off the beasts tha lurked in the shadows.”
― Harry Leslie Smith, Harry's Last Stand: How the world my generation built is falling down, and what we can do to save it

“In the north,” I said, “the majority of the people have outdoor toilets. The ones that have an indoor privy are well to do and have a full bib and tucker. I am afraid Britain is not like Germany, or even the rest of Western Europe where pretty well everyone has an indoor WC. Your Hitler was a mean bugger,” I said, “but he was good for modern sanitation.”
― Harry Leslie Smith, The Empress of Australia: A Post-War Memoir