The Second World War Quotes

“I let them do some simple arithmetic. In a group of one hundred people, how many assholes are there? How many fathers who humiliate their children? How many morons whose breath stinks like rotten meat but who refuse to do anything about it? How many hopeless cases who go on complaining all their lives about the non-existent injustices they’ve had to suffer? Look around you, I said. How many of your classmates would you be pleased not to see return to their desks tomorrow morning? Think about that one family member of your own family, that irritating uncle with his pointless, horseshit stories at birthday parties, that ugly cousin who mistreats his cat. Think about how relieved you would be - and not only you, but virtually the entire family - if that uncle or cousin would step on a landmine or be hit by a five-hundred-pounder dropped from a high altitude. If that member of the family were to be wiped off the face of the earth. And now think about all those millions of victims of all the wars there have been in the past - I never specifically mentioned the Second World War, I used it as an example because it’s the one that most appeals to their imaginations - and think about the thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of victims who we need to have around like we need a hole in the head. Even from a purely statistical standpoint, it’s impossible that all those victims were good people, whatever kind of people that may be. The injustice is found more in the fact that the assholes are also put on the list of innocent victims. That their names are also chiselled into the war memorials.”
― Herman Koch, The Dinner

“I just can’t see a future, and I believe that might mean it’s because this is all it will be.”
― Shari J. Ryan, The Doctor's Daughter

“No one warned me there would eventually be a last tick.”
― Shari J. Ryan, The Doctor's Daughter

“Nothing is what it was, and this town is no longer a part of who we are.”
― Shari J. Ryan, The Doctor's Daughter

“Living in this nightmare leads nowhere, and I can only continue walking through the tundra of bone-chilling winds, through the snow, toward the endless wall of clouds for so many days in a row before I feel the need to fall to my knees and beg for forgiveness.”
― Shari J. Ryan, The Doctor's Daughter

“Your life is not dependent upon anyone else’s. You don’t know what the future holds—none of us do, but I believe it holds more than what we are experiencing now. Hold on, dear. Just hold on. Please.”
― Shari J. Ryan, The Doctor's Daughter

“How is beauty ever to be seen through a tarnished lens?”
― Shari J. Ryan, The Doctor's Daughter

“I can’t understand why so many of them seem to be in one place at the same time, but I wonder if a man’s final thought is that they don’t want to be alone when they take their last breath.”
― Shari J. Ryan, The Doctor's Daughter

“It’s easier to dream of a future where we are not in a war.”
― Shari J. Ryan, The Doctor's Daughter

“Whispers in the dark were something of a nightmare years ago. Today, it’s the only form of communication we have inside these walls.”
― Shari J. Ryan, The Doctor's Daughter

“I knew there would come a morning when I would wake up differently than I had become used to, or there would be a night I never fell asleep.”
― Shari J. Ryan, The Doctor's Daughter

“Our bodies sway together like an airtight package of greased flesh—side to side and front to back with the waver of every curve the train takes. ”
― Shari J. Ryan