We lie under the network of arching shells and live in a suspense of uncertainty. If a shot comes, we can duck, that is all; we neither know nor can determine where it will fall." - All Quiet On The Western Front, Ch. 6

Erich Maria Remarque
About This Quote

We lie under the network of arching shells and live in a suspense of uncertainty. If a shot comes, we can duck, that is all; we neither know nor can determine where it will fall.” - All Quiet On The Western Front, Ch. 6 We are all constantly facing an overwhelming amount of uncertainty. No matter how much we might try to control our lives, there are always things that happen that we cannot predict or control.

The quote above comes at the end of chapter six of the novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque. It is written as if it were spoken by soldiers fighting in the war. It is meant to be disrespectful towards war because it makes it seem like they are living in a shell, constantly waiting for something bad to happen to them.

It makes them look like they are just living under an arching shell without even trying to move up closer to the front line.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. War is what happens when language fails. - Margaret Atwood

  2. Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. - Ernest Hemingway

  3. The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them. - J.r.r. Tolkien

  4. If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war. - Leo Tolstoy

  5. Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. - Anonymous

More Quotes By Erich Maria Remarque
  1. A crude age. Peace is stabilized with cannon and bombers, humanity with concentration camps and pogroms. We're living in a time when all standards are turned upside-down, Kern. Today the aggressor is the shepherd of peace, and the beaten and hunted are the troublemakers of...

  2. Today the aggressor is the shepherd of peace, and the beaten and hunted are the troublemakers of the world. What's more, there are whole races who believe it!

  3. Kropp on the other hand is a thinker. He proposes that a declaration of war should be a kind of popular festival with entrance-tickets and bands, like a bull fight. Then in the arena the ministers and generals of the two countries, dressed in bathing-drawers...

  4. For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress -- to the future.

  5. The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom.

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