Eugene B. Sledge quotes

“I am the harvest of man's stupidity. I am the fruit of the holocaust. I prayed like you to survive, but look at me now. It is over for us who are dead, but you must struggle, and will carry the memories all your life. People back home will wonder why you can't forget.”
-- Eugene B. Sledge

Source : Eugene B Sledge (2010). “With the Old Breed: The World War Two Pacific Classic”, p.272, Random House

#Memories Quotes #Struggle Quotes #Home Quotes

“You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you’ll never know The hell where youth and laughter go.”
-- Eugene B. Sledge

Source : Siegfried Sassoon (1983). “Siegfried Sassoon's long journey: selections from the Sherston memoirs”, Oxford University Press, USA

#Cheer Quotes #Laughter Quotes #Home Quotes

“As I crawled out of the abyss of combat and over the rail of the Sea Runner, I realized that compassion for the sufferings of others is a burden to those who have it. As Wilfred Owen's poem "Insensibility" puts it so well, those who feel most of others suffer most in war.”
-- Eugene B. Sledge

#War Quotes #Compassion Quotes #Sea Quotes

“I asked God "Why, why, why?" I turned my face away and wished that I were imagining it all. I had tasted the bitterest essence of war, the sight of helpless comrades being slaughtered, and it filled me with disgust.”
-- Eugene B. Sledge

Source : Eugene B Sledge (2010). “With the Old Breed: The World War Two Pacific Classic”, p.61, Random House

#War Quotes #Sight Quotes #Essence Quotes

“Until the millennium arrives and countries cease trying to enslave others, it will be necessary to accept one's responsibilities and be willing to make sacrifices for one's country - as my comrades did. As the troops used to say, "If the country is good enough to live in, it's good enough to fight for." With privilege goes responsibility.”
-- Eugene B. Sledge

#Country Quotes #Responsibility Quotes #Sacrifice Quotes

“To the non-combatants and those on the periphery of action, the war meant only boredom or occasional excitement, but to those who entered the meat grinder itself the war was a netherworld of horror from which escape seemed less and less likely as casualties mounted and the fighting dragged on and on. Time had no meaning, life had no meaning. The fierce struggle for survival in the abyss of Peleliu had eroded the veneer of civilization and made savages of us all.”
-- Eugene B. Sledge

#War Quotes #Struggle Quotes #Fighting Quotes

“War is brutish, inglorious, and a terrible waste... The only redeeming factors were my comrades' incredible bravery and their devotion to each other. Marine Corps training taught us to kill efficiently and to try to survive. But it also taught us loyalty to each other - and love. That espirit de corps sustained us.”
-- Eugene B. Sledge

#Loyalty Quotes #War Quotes #Marine Quotes

“I want people to remember me as a full on entertainer and a good person.”

“It's hard to say what I want my legacy to be when I'm long gone.”

“Last night I'd made love to a woman for the first and last time. It had been amazing and I had a memory that would shape the rest of my life.”

“It was all I had, all I've ever had, the only currency, the only proof that I was alive. Memory.”

“I am always struggling in finding time to daily grow in my faith. If you are not in the Word or focusing on Christ, or into prayer, you can't help but slip at times.”

“Man has become great through struggle”

“In actual fact the pacifistic-humane idea is perfectly all right perhaps when the highest type of man has previously conquered and subjected the world to an extent that makes him the sole ruler of this earth… Therefore, first struggle and then perhaps pacifism.”

“Dim loneliness came imperceivably into the fields and he turned back. The birds piped oddly; some wind was caressing the higher foliage, turning it all one way, the way home. Telegraph poles ahead looked like half-used pencils; the small cross on the steeple glittered with a sharp and shapely permanence.”

“I love our fans. Our fans are so supportive. It's been incredible to end four playoff games with 'Go Pack Go.' It's great at home, they travel well, it's on a first-name basis. It's a special play to play and all of us are blessed to play in Green Bay, and hopefully we will be repaying those fans with the Lombardi trophy.”

“You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a C.I.A. that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home.”