Arms and the Man: Important Textual Quotations
 

[LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]Some soldiers, I know, are afraid of death.[/FONT][/LIST][LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]All of them, dear lady, all of them, believe me. It is our duty to live as long as we can.[/FONT][/LIST][LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]This is a better weapon than the revolver.[/FONT][/LIST][LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]Nine soldiers out of ten are born fools.[/FONT][/LIST][LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]I am a Swiss, fighting merely as a professional soldier.[/FONT][/LIST][LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]What use are cartridges in battle? I always carry chocolate instead.[/FONT][/LIST][LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]You can always tell an old soldier by the inside of his holsters and cartridge boxes. The young one carry pistols and cartridges; the old ones, grub.[/FONT][/LIST][LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]It’s a funny sight, it’s like slinging a handful of peas against a window pane: first one comes; then two or three close behind him; and then all the rest in a lump.[/FONT][/LIST][LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]… a regular handsome fellow, with flashing eyes and lovely moustache, shouting his war-cry and charging like Don Quixote at the windmills.[/FONT][/LIST][LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]Of course, they just cut us to bits. And there was Con Quixote flourishing like a drum major, thinking he’d done the cleverest thing ever known, whereas he ought to be courtmartialled for it. Of all the fools ever let loose on a field of battle, that man must be the very maddest. He and his regiment simply committed suicide – only the pistol missed fire.[/FONT][/LIST][LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]… those three chocolate creams. It was unsoldierly; but it was angelic.[/FONT][/LIST][LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]Soldering, my dear madam, is the cowards’ art of attacking mercilessly when you are strong, and keeping out of harm’s way when you are weak. That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms.[/FONT][/LIST][LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]… soldering has to be a trade like any other trade.[/FONT][/LIST][LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]They make cannons out of cherry trees; and the officers send for their wives to keep discipline.[/FONT][/LIST][LIST][*][FONT=Verdana]… what are the two things that happen to a soldier so often that he comes to think nothing of them? One is hearing people tell lies: the other is getting his life saved in all sorts of ways by all sorts of people. [/FONT][/LIST]