It is when one is alone that one begins to observe Nature and to love her.
—Erich Remarque (via allwillturntogrey)
Shattered: All Quiet on the Western Front and its Generation
The first World War left a scar across the world. Much of Europe was destroyed and its people broken. In his novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque explored the story of Paul Bäumer, a nineteen-year-old German soldier on the front lines. Through Paul, the destruction of World War I was bared: not just the elimination of human life but the splintering of soldiers’ mentality. A soldier himself, Remarque drew upon his own experiences to provide an inside look at the war’s effects. Remarque’s novel reflected the disillusionment of an entire generation as they lost hope and conviction in the face of the terror they confronted on the battlefield: a new morality of the front emerged. For most soldiers, it seemed impossible to go home after what they had seen and done.
I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another.
—Erich Maria Remarque All Quiet On The Western Front (via sexcoffeeandconversation)
I am no longer a shuddering speck of existence, alone in the darkness;— I belong to them and they to me, we all share the same fear and the same life, we are nearer than lovers, in a simpler, a harder way; I could bury my face in them, in these voices, these words that have saved me and will stand by me.
—All Quiet On The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (via hiccupsanonymous)
But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony—Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?
How senseless is everything that can ever be written, done, or thought, when such things are possible. It must be all lies and of no account when the culture of a thousand years could not prevent this stream of blood being poured out, these torture-chambers in their hundreds of thousands. A hospital alone shows what war is.
—Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front. (via asuperfluousman)
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.
—Kurt Vonnegut (via jenuineopinion)
(Source: misschomps, via inquisitivebibliophile)
(Source: vhodkha, via meatlesmondays)
(Source: jonwithabullet, via wtfisthisfor)
the royal family, everybody
OH SNAP
(Source: royalsstuffandnonsense, via thanbluesandreds)
(Source: kellymagovern, via pas-de-deuxanna)
Jack Dawson… Penniless artist who wins a ticket onto Titanic in 1912, attends a first class dinner, develops a taste for the finer things in life, pockets the Heart of the Ocean, survives the sinking, pawns the diamond, spends the following ten years building his wealth and in 1922 moves to West Egg as Jay Gatsby… Millionaire with a shady past and fear of swimming pools.
FUCK
(via thanbluesandreds)
