Paul Fussell Quotes about War

Chickenshit can be recognized instantly because it never has anything to do with winning the war.

Chickenshit can be recognized instantly because it never has anything to do with winning the war.

Military, War, Winning

Paul Fussell (1990). “Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War”, p.80, Oxford University Press

"Those who fought know a secret about themselves, and it is not very nice." ... They have experienced secretly and privately their natural human impulse toward sadism and brutality... Not merely did I learn to kill with a noose of piano wire put around somebody's neck from behind, but I learned to enjoy the prospect of killing that way.

Paul Fussell

War, Nice, Piano

"The Initial Shock... A Conversation with Paul Fussell". Humanities, November/December 1996.

Wars damage the civilian society as much as they damage the enemy. Soldiers never get over it.

Paul Fussell

War, Soldier, Enemy

If we do not redefine manhood, war is inevitable.

Paul Fussell

War, Inevitable, Ifs

"PUBLIC & PRIVATE; Regrets Only" by Anna Quindlen, www.nytimes.com. February 7, 1991.

The worst thing about war was the sitting around and wondering what you were doing morally.

Paul Fussell

War, Sitting, Wonder

To get home you had to end the war. To end the war was the reason you fought it. The only reason.

Paul Fussell

War, Home, Reason

Paul Fussell (1990). “Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War”, p.141, Oxford University Press, USA

Every war is ironic because every war is worse than expected. Every war constitutes an irony of situation because its means are so melodramatically disproportionate to its presumed ends.

Paul Fussell

War, Mean, Ironic

Paul Fussell (2013). “The Great War and Modern Memory”, p.23, Oxford University Press

So many bright futures consigned to the ashes of the past.So many dreams lost in the madness that had engulfed us.Except for a few widely scattered shouts of joy,the survivors of the abyss sat hollow-eyed and silent, trying to comprehend a world without war.

Paul Fussell

Dream, War, Past

Paul Fussell (1990). “Thank God for the Atom Bomb, and Other Essays”