Peleliu Quotes & Sayings

Something in me died at Peleliu. Perhaps it was the childish innocence that accepted as faith the claim that Man is basically good. Possibly I lost faith that politicians in high places, who do not have to endure war's savagery, will ever stop blundering and sending others to endure it. — Eugene B. Sledge

Hymns of today that may be sung by people who know the thought of the age ... are not afraid that any truth of science will destroy Christianity, or any revolution will overthrow the Kingdom of Heaven. — Henry Van Dyke

Idealistic? Ruddy stupid, if you'll pardon the language, miss,: Mr Roberts said. "All this talk about power for the people and down with the ruling classes and everyone should govern themselves. It can never happen, I told him. The ruling classes are born to rule. They know how to do it. You take a person like you or me and you put us up there to run a country and we'd make a ruddy mess of it. — Rhys Bowen

This is our special duty, that if anyone specially needs our help, we should give him such help to the utmost of our power. — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Body bomb,' he said. All stopped. It was impossible to know who the man was or what brought him to that place, and it was hard to fathom because a moment is never long enough to account for tragedy when you are in it. Grief is a practical mechanism, and we only grieved for those we knew. All others who died in Al Tafar were part of the landscape, as if something had sown seeds in that city that made bodies rise from the earth, in the dirt or up through the pavement like flowers after a frost, dried and withering under a cold, bright sun. — Kevin Powers

They say the human body can lose 50 percent of its body parts and survive. But it depends on which parts, and which body. — Jan Ellison

You've been giving me the full-court press since you got here, and we know what'll happen if I let you through that door. But you're leaving. And when you do, I'll be the one who's hurt afterward. So why start something you have no intention of finishing?
- Lexie — Nicholas Sparks

Pleasure is the rock which most young people split upon: they launch out with crowded sails in quest of it, but without a compass to direct their course, or reason sufficient to steer the vessel; for want of which, pain and shame, instead of pleasure, are the returns of their voyage. — Philip Dormer Stanhope

I'll give you the same advice I give my children: Never take advice from anybody. — Robert Altman

The Japanese fought to win - it was a savage, brutal, inhumane, exhausting and dirty business. Our commanders knew that if we were to win and survive, we must be trained realistically for it whether we liked it or not. In the post-war years, the U.S. Marine Corps came in for a great deal of undeserved criticism in my opinion, from well-meaning persons who did not comprehend the magnitude of stress and horror that combat can be. The technology that developed the rifle barrel, the machine gun and high explosive shells has turned war into prolonged, subhuman slaughter. Men must be trained realistically if they are to survive it without breaking, mentally and physically. — Eugene B. Sledge

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

Richard is my son now," her father was saying.
Margaret leaned over him. "No," she said, her voice harsh. "No, he is not."
"He will be, when - "
"By your definition, I am the only son you will ever have." He blinked at her. "I beg your pardon?"
She hadn't known she was going to say it, but the words seemed right coming out of her mouth. "...A continuation through the female line is not traditional, but the excuse will suffice. So understand this: I will choose the next Duke of Parford. I will inherit the estate. I will have the entailed property. — Courtney Milan

Politics means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state. — Max Weber

And the child - your child - was born there in the midst of misery. It was a deadly place: strange, everything was strange, we women lying there were strange to each other, lonely and hating one another out of misery, the same torment in that crowded ward full of chloroform and blood, screams and groans. — Stefan Zweig

The moral man is as guilty as the rest. His morality cannot save him. — Dwight L. Moody