All Quiet on the Western Front Quotes

Albert Kropp: Ah, the French certainly deserve to be punished for starting this war.

Detering: Everybody says it's somebody else.

Tjaden: Well. how do they start a war?

Albert Kropp: Well, one country offends another.

Tjaden: How could one country offend another?

Tjaden: You mean there's a mountain over in Germany gets mad at a field over in France?
[Everyone laughs]

Albert Kropp: Well, stupid, one people offends another.

Tjaden: Oh, well, if that's it, I shouldn't be here at all. I don't feel offended.

Katczinsky: It don't apply to tramps like you.

Tjaden: Good. Then I could be goin' home right away.
Paul Bäumer: Ah, you just try it.

Katczinsky: Yeah. You wanna get shot?

Tjaden: The kaiser and me...
[the others laugh]

Tjaden: Me and the kaiser felt just alike about this war. We didn't either of us want any war, so I'm going home. He's there already.

Hair-peak soldier: Somebody must have wanted it. Maybe it was the English. No, I don't want to shoot any Englishman. I never saw one 'til I came up here. And I suppose most of them never saw a German 'til *they* came up here. No, I'm sure *they* weren't asked about it.
Paul Bäumer: No.

Detering: Well, it must be doing somebody some good.

Detering: Not me and the kaiser.

Hair-peak soldier: I think maybe the kaiser wanted a war.

Tjaden

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Franz Kemmerich: [after risking his life to bring back Behn] He's dead!... He's dead!

Katczinsky: [angrily] Why did you risk your life bringin' him in?

Franz Kemmerich: [very upset] But it's Behn! My friend!

Katczinsky: He's a corpse - no matter who it is...
[to the others]

Katczinsky: Now, don't any of you ever do that again!

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Katczinsky: [entering and seeing the new recruits] What is this?

Tjaden: [sarcastically] Volunteers for the future general's staff.

Katczinsky: [to the recruits] Oh, sometime I'm gonna take one of you volunteers apart and find out what makes you leave school and join the army. At ease. This is no parade ground.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Katczinsky: I'll tell you how it should all be done.
[spits]

Katczinsky: Whenever there's a big war comin' on, you should rope off a big field...

Cigar-smoking soldier: And sell tickets.

Katczinsky: Yeah. And -
[glares at interrupter]

Katczinsky: And on the big day, you should take all the kings and their cabinets and their generals, put 'em in the center dressed in their underpants, and let 'em fight it out with clubs. The best country wins.
[everybody murmurs in agreement]
Paul Bäumer: Well, now that Kat's settled everything, let's go see Kemmerick.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Mueller: Listen, the sum of an arithmetic series is S = A + L times N over 2. Interesting, isn't it?

Katczinsky: What do you want to learn that stuff for...? One day you'll stop a bullet and it'll all be worthless.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Paul Baumer: [to a dying Frenchman] If we threw away the guns, the grenades - we could have been brothers, but they never want us to know that.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Paul Bäumer: War isn't the way it looks back here.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
"Paul Bäumer: We live in the trenches out there. We fight. We try not to be killed, but sometimes we are. That's all.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
[first lines]

Man cleaning doorknob: Thirty thousand.

Maid: From the Russians?

Man cleaning doorknob: No, from the French. From the Russians we capture more than that every day.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
[first title card]

Title card: This story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war...

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
[last lines]

Second orderly: Your deal. Get his name and number?

Medic Orderly: Yeah. Corporal Stanislaus Katczinsky, 306.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Albert Kropp: [speaking of school] They never taught us really useful like how to light a cigarette in the wind, or make a fire out of wet wood, or bayonet a man in the belly instead of the ribs where it gets jammed.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Hair-peak soldier: And manufacturers. They get rich.
[murmurs of agreement]

Albert Kropp: I think it's more a kind of fever. Nobody wants it in particular, and then all at once, there it is. We didn't want it. The English didn't want it. And here we are fighting.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Professor Kantorek: Paul! How are you, Paul?
Paul Bäumer: [somber] Glad to see you, Professor.

Professor Kantorek: You've come at the right moment, Baumer! Just at the right moment!
[to students]

Professor Kantorek: And as if to prove all I have said, here is one of the first to go! A lad who sat before me on these very benches, who gave up all to serve in the first year of the war. One of the iron youth who have made Germany invincible in the field! Look at him. Sturdy and bronze and clear-eyed! The kind of soldier every one of you should envy! Paul, lad, you must speak to them. You must tell them what it means to serve your fatherland.
Paul Bäumer: No no, I can't tell them anything.
Paul Bäumer: You must, Paul. Just a word. Just tell them how much they're needed out there. Tell them why you went, and what it meant to you.
Paul Bäumer: I can't say anything.

Professor Kantorek: If you remember some deed of heroism, some touch of humility, tell about it.
[encouraging murmurs from the students]
Paul Bäumer: I can't tell you anything you don't know. We live in the trenches out there, we fight, we try not to be killed; and sometimes we are. That's all.
[students fidget, disappointed]

Professor Kantorek: No, no Paul!
Paul Bäumer: [angry] I've been there! I know what it's like!

Professor Kantorek: That's not what one dwells on, Paul!
Paul Bäumer: [bitterly] I heard you in here, reciting that same old stuff. Making more iron men, more young heroes. You still think it's beautiful and sweet to die for your country, don't you?
[Kantorek nods firmly]
Paul Bäumer: We used to think you knew. The first bombardment taught us better. It's d

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Schoolmaster: [to his students] You are the life of the Fatherland! You are the iron men of Germany!

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Tjaden: Me and the Kaiser, we are both fighting. The only difference is the Kaiser isn't here!

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Tjaden: They tell me there's some people in this world take a bath every week.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
"Paul Bäumer: And our bodies are earth. And our thoughts are clay. And we sleep and eat with death.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
"Paul Bäumer: You still think it's beautiful to die for your country. The first bombardment taught us better. When it comes to dying for country, it's better not to die at all.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Ginger - the Cook: [looking at soldiers lined up to eat] What do you want?

Katczinsky: Beans, you homely-looking son of a frog's leg! What do you think I want?

Ginger - the Cook: [the men shout that they're hungry] Shut up! I'll feed you when you're all here.

Tjaden: We're all here now!

Ginger - the Cook: Only half the company's here. Get the rest! Wake 'em up!

Katczinsky: [the men laugh] I wish I could wake 'em up. There's 80 of us left. The rest is in dressin' stations or pushin' up daisies!

Ginger - the Cook: [shocked] 80? And I cooked for 150!

Westhus: All right, we'll have enough for once. Come on, dish out!

Tjaden: You mean you've cooked beans for 150?
[the cook nods]

Tjaden: And you've got bread for 150 and sausage for 150 and tobacco for 150?

Ginger - the Cook: Everything. It's all wrong. I should have been notified!

Katczinsky: What a feast! Everyone gets two issues!
[the waiting men shout]

Katczinsky: [trying to keep order in the ranks] Get back in line! Get back in line!

Ginger - the Cook: Oh, no, that woun't do. I can't give 80 men what's meant for 150.

Katczinsky: [he starts to punch the cook but thinks better of it and tries to be persuasive] Listen, you drew rations for the Second Company, didn't yuh?

Ginger - the Cook: Yes.

Katczinsky: All right, we're the Second Company!
[the men shout]


Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Katczinsky: At the next war let all the Kaisers, presidents and generals and diplomats go into a big field and fight it out first among themselves. That will satisfy us and keep us at home.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Katczinsky: [to Detering, Westhus, and Tjaden] I wish you three would get bumped off. I'm tired of feeding you for nothing.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Mueller: Listen, the sum of an arithmetic series is S = A + L times N over 2. Interesting, isn't it?
Katczinsky: What do you want to learn that stuff for...? One day you'll stop a bullet and it'll all be worthless.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Paul Bäumer: You still think it's beautiful to die for your country. The first bombardment taught us better. When it comes to dying for country, it's better not to die at all.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Paul Bäumer: We live in the trenches out there. We fight. We try not to be killed, but sometimes we are. That's all.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Paul Bäumer: And our bodies are earth. And our thoughts are clay. And we sleep and eat with death.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Paul Baumer: [to a dying Frenchman] If we threw away the guns, the grenades - we could have been brothers, but they never want us to know that.

TV Show: All Quiet on the Western Front
Tjaden: Me and the Kaiser, we are both fighting. The only difference is the Kaiser isn't here!

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
Tjaden: There used to be some food in the sawdust. Now it's all sawdust.

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front
[first title card]

Title card: This story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war...

Movie: All Quiet on the Western Front