[Paul is on a mission with his comrades. He goes in a shell hole and to protect himself from gunfire] I say "You must [get out of this hollow], it is your comrades, it is not and idiotic command," and again: "What does it matter to me, I have only one life to lose—"

Oh God. This is Franz Kemmerich, only 19 years old. He doesn't want to die. Please don't let him die.

Out of 20, three are officers, nine dead, Müller and three others wounded, and one in the mad house. We'll all be dead someday so let's forget it.

Sometime I'm gonna take one of you volunteers apart — find out what makes you leave school and join the army. Hey, this is no parade ground.

[to new recruits] Now you're gonna see some shell fire, and you're gonna be scared... [a shell explodes nearby and they all duck for cover; one terrified recruit soils his pants] Never mind. It's happened to better men than you. And it's happened to me. When we come back, I'll get you all some nice, clean underwear!

That cannon shell you don't have to pay much attention to. Those big fellas just make a lot of noise and land about five miles behind the line. The things we've got to watch out for are them black ones. They don't give you much warning... Mother Earth — press yourselves down upon her! Bury yourselves deep into her! Just keep your eyes on me. When you see me flop, you flop, only try to beat me to it.

There's 80 of us left. The rest is in dressing stations or pushing up daisies.

[to Paul on his return] It's gonna be a real war again.