Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front remains one of the most impactful anti-war novels ever written, offering a visceral, unflinching portrayal of a soldier’s experience in World War I.
Narrated by young Paul Bäumer, the novel strips away the patriotic fervor to reveal the brutal reality of the trenches, the loss of innocence, the profound bonds of comradeship, and the devastating psychological toll on a generation “destroyed by the war, even though they may have escaped its shells.”
This collection presents 42 essential quotes from All Quiet on the Western Front, verified with page numbers from the 1987 Ballantine Books paperback edition. Organized by theme, these lines capture the novel’s core messages about the horrors of industrialized warfare, the meaning of survival, and the disillusionment of the “Iron Youth.”
Sourced meticulously, these quotes provide direct insight into Remarque’s powerful prose and the enduring legacy of Paul Bäumer’s story.
Thrust into the crucible of war, Paul and his classmates find their youthful ideals shattered by the brutal realities of training and the front.
The Lost Generation: Youth and Disillusionment
Paul’s generation, lured into war by patriotic fervor and misguided teachers, quickly confronts the stark contrast between idealized notions of heroism and the dehumanizing reality of trench warfare.
“This book is to be 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 shells, were destroyed by the war.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Author’s Intent, War’s Destruction, Lost Generation, Page vii (Prologue)
Remarque explicitly states his purpose: to depict the psychological devastation inflicted upon an entire generation, beyond mere physical survival.
“The wisest were just the poor and simple people. They knew the war to be a misfortune, whereas those who were better off… were beside themselves with joy.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Class Perspective, War Hysteria, Chapter 1, Page 18
“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.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Betrayal by Elders, Lost Guidance, Chapter 1, Page 19
“The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Disillusionment, Loss of Faith (in authority), Chapter 1, Page 19
“While they continued to write and talk, we saw the wounded and dying. While they taught that duty to one’s country is the greatest thing, we already knew that death-throes are stronger.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Experience vs Propaganda, Reality of Death, Chapter 1, Page 20
The soldiers’ direct experience of death fundamentally undermines the patriotic rhetoric they were taught.
“We know only that in some strange and melancholy way we have become a waste land. All the same, we are not often sad.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Desensitization, Emotional Numbness, Lost Youth, Chapter 2, Page 27
“We learned that a bright button is weightier than four volumes of Schopenhauer. At first astonished, then embittered, and finally indifferent, we recognised that what matters is not the mind but the boot brush, not intelligence but the system, not freedom but drill.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Dehumanization, Military Training, Loss of Values, Chapter 2, Page 28
“We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Lost Generation, Trauma, Disillusionment, War’s Impact, Chapter 5, Page 89
This key passage encapsulates the profound rupture caused by the war, severing the young soldiers from their past selves and future hopes.
“And even if these scenes from our youth were given back to us we would hardly know what to do… it would be like gazing at the photograph of a dead comrade; those are his features, it is his face, and the days we spent together take on a mournful life in the memory; but the man himself it is not.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Alienation, Lost Past, Trauma, Chapter 6, Page 121
“We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial—I believe we are lost.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Lost Generation, Paradox of War, Despair, Chapter 6, Page 121
“I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear, and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Lost Youth, Trauma, War’s Legacy, Chapter 10, Page 252
“And men will not understand us—for the generation that grew up before us… had a home and a calling… and the generation that has grown up after us will be strange to us and push us aside. We will be superfluous even to ourselves…”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Alienation, Lost Generation, Futurelessness, Chapter 12, Page 278
The visceral horror of trench warfare, industrial killing, and constant proximity to death forms the novel’s brutal core.
The Horror and Futility of War
Remarque depicts the physical and psychological horrors of the Western Front with unflinching realism, exposing the senseless destruction and the dehumanizing nature of modern warfare.
“The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Disillusionment, Reality of War, Chapter 1, Page 20
“We see men living with their skulls blown open; we see soldiers run with their two feet cut off… we see men without mouths, without jaws, without faces…”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Horror of War, Injury, Dehumanization, Chapter 6, Page 132
“Bombardment, barrage, curtain-fire, mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns, hand-grenades – words, words, but they hold the horror of the world.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Language vs Reality, Horror of War, Chapter 6, Page 130
“The front is a cage in which we must await fearfully whatever may happen. We lie under the network of arching shells and live in a suspense of uncertainty. Over us Chance hovers.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Fear, Uncertainty, Chance, Lack of Control, Chapter 6, Page 100
“No soldier outlives a thousand chances. But every soldier believes in Chance and trusts his luck.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Chance, Luck, Survival Psychology, Chapter 6, Page 101
“We have become wild beasts. We do not fight, we defend ourselves against annihilation. It is not against men that we fling our bombs… what do we know of men in this moment when Death is hunting us down…”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Dehumanization, Survival Instinct, Animalism, Chapter 6, Page 112
The intensity of battle strips away civilized layers, reducing soldiers to primal beings fighting for survival against an abstract threat.
“How senseless is everything that can ever be written, done, or thought, when such things are possible. It must be all lies and of no account when the culture of a thousand years could not prevent this stream of blood being poured out, these torture-chambers in their hundreds of thousands. A hospital alone shows what war is.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Futility of War, Failure of Culture, Horror of War, Chapter 10, Page 252
Witnessing the vast scale of suffering in the hospital leads Paul to condemn the perceived failures of civilization and culture to prevent such atrocities.
“Our knowledge of life is limited to death.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: War’s Impact, Lost Youth, Death, Chapter 10, Page 252
“A man cannot realize that above such shattered bodies there are still human faces in which life goes its daily round.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Dehumanization, Indifference, Horror of War, Chapter 10, Page 252
“The terror of the front sinks deep down when we turn our backs upon it; we make grim, coarse jests about it… that keeps us from going mad; as long as we take it that way we maintain our own resistance.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Coping Mechanisms, Gallows Humor, Psychological Survival, Chapter 7, Page 137
In the face of constant death and dehumanization, the strongest bonds are forged between soldiers who rely on each other for survival.
Comradeship: Brotherhood Forged in Fire
The intense shared experience of the front creates a deep, instinctual bond among the soldiers, a comradeship that surpasses conventional relationships and becomes their primary source of meaning and support.
“…the finest thing that arose out of the war– comradeship.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Comradeship, War’s Paradox, Chapter 2, Page 27
“We sit opposite one another, Kat and I, two soldiers in shabby coats, cooking a goose in the middle of the night. We don’t talk much, but I believe we have a more complete communion with one another than even lovers have.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Comradeship, Connection, Shared Experience, Chapter 5, Page 96
Simple shared moments away from the fighting forge deep, unspoken bonds between the soldiers.
“We are two men, two minute sparks of life; outside is the night and the circle of death. We sit on the edge of it crouching in danger… in our hearts we are close to one another…”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Comradeship, Shared Danger, Life and Death, Chapter 5, Page 96
“They are more to me than life, these voices, they are more than motherliness and more than fear; they are the strongest, most comforting thing there is anywhere: they are the voices of my comrades.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Comradeship, Comfort, Survival, Belonging, Chapter 9, Page 205
“I am no longer a shuddering speck of existence, alone in the darkness;–I belong to them and they to me; we all share the same fear and the same life…I could bury my face in them, in these voices, these words that have saved me and will stand by me.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Comradeship, Belonging, Overcoming Fear, Shared Existence, Chapter 9, Page 205
The presence and voices of his comrades rescue Paul from the isolating terror of the shell-hole, affirming their life-sustaining bond.
Paul’s encounter with the dying French soldier forces a brutal confrontation with the shared humanity of the “enemy.”
The Enemy and Shared Humanity
Moments of direct confrontation or reflection break through the dehumanizing nature of war, forcing Paul to recognize the enemy soldier as a man like himself.
“A word of command has made these silent figures our enemies; a word of command might transform them into our friends.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Enemy (Constructed), Authority, Arbitrariness of War, Chapter 8, Page 188
“Comrade, I did not want to kill you… But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction… It was that abstraction I stabbed. But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, (Character: Paul to the dead French soldier Duval), Theme: Dehumanization, Recognition of Humanity, Guilt, Shared Suffering, Chapter 9, Page 215
“Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony—Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, (Character: Paul to Duval), Theme: Shared Humanity, Questioning War, Empathy, Chapter 9, Page 215
Trapped with the dying man he stabbed, Paul confronts the horrific absurdity of war by recognizing their fundamental shared humanity and suffering.
“If we threw away these rifles and this uniform you could be my brother just like Kat and Albert.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, (Character: Paul to Duval), Theme: Brotherhood, Artificial Divisions of War, Chapter 9, Page 216
Returning home on leave, Paul finds himself alienated from a civilian world that cannot comprehend the realities of the front.
Homecoming and Alienation
Leave provides physical respite but deepens the psychological gulf between the soldiers and the civilians who remain untouched by the war’s brutal truths.
“I imagined leave would be different from this. Indeed, it was different a year ago. It is I of course that have changed in the interval.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Change, Alienation, War’s Impact, Chapter 7, Page 164
“I find I do not belong here any more, it is a foreign world.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Alienation, Loss of Connection, Chapter 7, Page 164
“They talk too much for me. They have worries, aims, desires, that I cannot comprehend. I often sit with one of them… and try to explain… that this is really the only thing: just to sit quietly, like this.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Alienation, Misunderstanding, Incommunicability of War, Chapter 7, Page 165
“Mother, what should I answer to that! You would not understand, you could never realise it. And you never shall realise it. Was it bad, you ask.– You, Mother,–I shake my head and say: “No, Mother, not so very.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, (Character: Paul to his mother), Theme: Protectiveness, Incommunicability, Alienation, Chapter 7, Page 157
Paul cannot share the true horror with his mother, creating a painful distance born of love and the untranslatable nature of his experience.
“Ah! Mother, Mother! Why do I not take you in my arms and die with you. What poor wretches we are!”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, (Character: Paul’s internal thought), Theme: Despair, Shared Suffering, Love, Chapter 7, Page 179
“Out there I was indifferent and often hopeless;–I will never be able to be so again. I was a soldier, and now I am nothing but an agony for myself, for my mother, for everything that is so comfortless and without end. I ought never to have come on leave.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Regret, Pain of Homecoming, Psychological Scars, Chapter 7, Page 180-181
The natural world offers moments of beauty and connection, contrasting sharply with the unnatural destruction of war.
Nature vs. War
Moments observing nature provide brief solace and highlight the contrast between the enduring natural world and the destructive, artificial nature of the war.
“To no man does the earth mean so much as to the soldier… O Earth, thou grantest us the great resisting surge of new-won life.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Connection to Earth, Survival, Nature as Refuge, Chapter 4, Page 55
The earth itself becomes a source of primal comfort and protection against the onslaught of shells.
“The birds too are just as carefree, they have long since accustomed themselves to the war. Every morning larks ascend from No Man’s Land.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Nature’s Indifference/Adaptation, Life Persists, Chapter 6, Page 126
“I tell you it is the vilest baseness to use horses in the war.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, (Character: Detering), Theme: Animals in War, Injustice, Senseless Cruelty, Chapter 4, Page 67
“It is summer! The trees are green. The earth is fragrant.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Nature’s Beauty, Contrast with War, Chapter 11, Page 283
“Summer of 1918 – Never has life in its niggardliness seemed to us so desirable as now;–the red poppies in the meadows round our billets, the smooth beetles on the blades of grass, the warm evenings in the cool, dim rooms, the black mysterious trees of the twilight, the stars and the flowing waters, dreams and long sleep – O Life, life, life!”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Appreciation of Life, Nature’s Beauty, Desire for Peace, Chapter 11, Page 270
Facing the end, the simple elements of life and nature gain an almost unbearable beauty and significance.
Conclusion: The Enduring Silence
These 42 quotes from All Quiet on the Western Front powerfully convey the brutal realities and profound psychological impact of World War I. Erich Maria Remarque masterfully captures the camaraderie forged in shared suffering, the disillusionment of a generation betrayed by patriotic ideals, and the devastating contrast between the machinery of war and the enduring pulse of life.
Paul Bäumer’s journey from eager recruit to weary veteran forces readers to confront the true cost of conflict – not just in lives lost, but in the erosion of youth, hope, and humanity itself. The novel’s final, haunting sentence remains its most potent legacy.
“He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front.”
~Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, Theme: Irony, Futility, Individual vs Report, Page 280 (Last page)
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A Note on Page Numbers & Edition:
We meticulously sourced these quotes from All Quiet on the Western Front (Ballantine Books; Reissue edition, March 12, 1987, ISBN-13: 978-0449213940). Like soldiers seeking cover, page numbers can shift in different editions. Always verify against your copy for accurate citations!
Jeremy Mortis, founder of Ageless Investing, applies a rigorous analytical approach (the AAM framework) to distill timeless wisdom and contextualized quotes from classic literature, saving you time while deepening understanding. Learn more about Jeremy’s unique background and methodology on his author bio page.