Meredith

“To no man does the earth mean so much as to the soldier. When he presses himself down upon her long and powerfully, when he buries his face and his limbs deep in her from the fear of death by shell-fire, then she is his only friend, his brother, his mother; he stifles his terror and his cries in her silence and her security; she shelters him and releases him for ten seconds to live, to run, ten seconds of life; receives him again and again and often forever.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front

“…in silence learned the sweet solace which affection administers to sorrow.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front

“It is too dangerous for me to put these things into words. I am afraid they might then become gigantic and I be no longer able to master them.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front