English Literature - Key Quotes

Birdsong - ”he turned the knife so that the blade was in his palm, then ran the handle of it down between her breasts and over her thighs. He did not know what he was doing”

Birdsong - “within two hours they had blown Byrne’s head, bit by bit, off his body so that only a hole remained between his shoulders.”

Birdsong - “Levi looked at… his brother’s killer…the two men fell upon each other’s shoulders, weeping at the bitter strangeness of their human lives”

Birdsong - Stephen - “If I am fighting on behalf of anyone, I think it is for those who have died. Not for the living at home.”

Birdsong - Weir - “This is not a war, this is a test of how far man can be degraded” 

Regeneration - Billy Prior - ''She belonged with the pleasure-seeking crowds. He both envied and despised her, and was quite coldly determined to get her. They owed him something, all of them, and she should pay. He glanced at her. 'Shall we walk along?''

Siegfried Sassoon - Declaration - ''I believe that this War, on which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest.''

All Quiet on the Western Front - ''We are no longer soldiers but little more than boys.'' - Paul Baumer?

All Quiet on the Western Front - Baumer - ''That is Franz Kemmerich, nineteen and a half years old, he doesn't want to die. Let him not die!''

All Quiet on the Western Front - INSENSIBILITY - ''One of them comes up, casts a glance at Kemmerich and goes away again. You can see he is waiting, apparently he wants the bed.''

All Quiet on the Western Front - FUTILITY - ''I become faint, all at once I cannot do any more. I won't revile any more, it is senseless, I could drop down and never rise up again.''

Vera Brittain - A Testament of Youth - ''Women get all the dreariness of war, and none of its exhilaration.''

Vera Brittain - A Testament of Youth - ''I wanted very badly to be heroic- or at any rate to see heroic myself- so I tried to rationalise my grief.''

Vera Brittain - A Testament of Youth - ''Truly the war has made masochists of us all.''

Bertrand Russell - Autobiography - ''I became filled with despairing tenderness towards the young men who were to be slaughtered.''

Sylvia Pankhurst - 'The Home Front' - ''How important, how joyously important they were, their gait more triumphantly instinct with pleasure than ever it was in the ballroom.''

H.G. Wells - 'Mr. Britling Sees It Through' - ''Crowds of men and youth waited.''

H.G. Wells - 'Mr. Britling Sees It Through' - ''Teach them damned Germans a lesson.''

Ernest Raymond - 'Tell England' - ''How frightfully thrilling.''

Ernest Raymond - 'Tell England' - ''Eighteen, by jove! You've timed your lives wonderfully, my boys.''

Rupert Brooke - Letter to Katharine Cox - ''But your letter is the only letter I've had since we sailed. It is fun getting letters.''

Wilfred Owen - Letter to his mother, Susan. - ''My bed is a hammock of rabbit-wire stuck up beside a great shell hole in the wall.''

Wilfred Owen - Letter to his mother, Susan. - ''Those 'Somme Pictures' are the laughing stock of the army - like the trenches on exhibition in Kensington.''

Robert Graves - 'Goodbye to All That' - ''But once in France, the over-age men did not mind adding on a few genuine years.''

Robert Graves - 'Goodbye to All That' - ''While I remember, Callaghan, don't forget to write to his next-of-kin. Usual sort of letter; tell them he died a soldiers' death, anything you like. I'm not going to report this as a suicide.''

Henri Barbusse - 'Under Fire' - ''as the mud dripped from his waving arms, he cried in a hollow voice, 'There must be no more war after this!''

Blackadder - Last Episode - George- ''10th August What a day that was. Myself and the fellows leap-frogging down to the Cambridge recruiting office, then playing tiddly-winks in the queue.''

Blackadder - Last Episode - Baldrick - ''Well, it would do if we had any sugar. But we ran out New Year's Eve 1915, since when I've been using a substitute.'' ''Which is?'' ''Dandruff.''

Blackadder - Last Episode - Baldrick - ''I heard it started when some chap called Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry.''

Blackadder - Last Episode - ''The sound of Baldrick spitting is heard.'' (Stage Direction.)

Blackadder - Last Episode - Melchett - ''Yes. I've been awfully selfish keeping you back here instead of letting you join in all the fun and games.''

Journey's End - Hardy - ''How is the dear young boy? Drinking like a fish, as uaual?''

Journey's End - Stanhope - ''Officially I'm supposed to read all your letters. Damn it all, Uncle! Imagine yourself in my place - a letter going away from here - from that boy -''

Journey's End - Hibbert - ''Go on, then, shoot! You won't let me go to hospital. I swear I'll never go into those trenches again. Shoot!''

Journey's End - Stage Directions - ''The shelling has risen to a great fury. The solitary candles burns with a steady flame, and Raleigh lies in the shadows. The whine of a shell rises to a shriek and bursts on the dug-out roof. The shock stabs out the candle-flame.''