"All thinking men are atheists" "-It's very odd though. Why did you do it? "-I love you so and it's been awful. You won't go away? "I thought she was probably a little crazy. It was all right if she was. I did not care what I was getting into." "I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards. Like bridge you had to pretend you were playing for money or playing for some stakes. Nobody had mentioned what the stakes were. It was all right with me" "-You don't have to pretend you love me. That's over for the evening. Is there anything you'd like to talk about? "Thank God I did not become involved with the British" "Nobody knew anything about it although they all spoke with great positiveness and strategical knowledge." "If everybody would not attack the war would be over" "I believe we should get the war over, I said. It would not finish it if one side stopped fighting. It would only be worse if we stopped fighting." "-It could not be worse,Passini said respectfully. There is nothing worse than war. "-I know it is bad but we must finish it. "War is not won by victory" "-We think. We read. We are not peasants. We are mechanics. But even the peasants know better than to believe in a war. Everybody hates war. "-Then it's hopeless? "-I Don't love much "We'll have to be awfully careful. That was just madness. We can't do that" "God knows I had not wanted to fall in love with her. I had not wanted to fall in love with any one. But God knows I had and I lay on the bed in the room of the hospital in Milan and all sorts of things went through my head but I felt wonderful and finally Miss Gage came in." "Don't brag, darling. Please don't brag. You're so sweet and you don't have to brag." "-You're lying to me "-Will you come to our wedding, Fergy? I said to her once. "No, darling. I was just making fun of you." "You shouldn't be jealous of some one who's dead when you have everything" "You're my religion.You're all I've got" "Perhaps wars weren't won any more. Maybe they went on forever." "-You're a great boy, Ettore, Mac said. But I'm afraid you're a militarist. "-Wouldn't you like me to have some more exhalted rank? "Oh darling, I'm awfully glad you're not conceited. I'd have married you even if you were conceited but it's very restful to have a husband who's not conceited." "There was a great contrast between his world pessimism and personal cheeriness." "-Where should we go? "We were quiet awhile and did not talk. Catherine was siting on the besd and I was looking at her but we did not touch each other. We were apart as when some one comes into a room and people are self-conscious. She put out her hand and took mine." "Always isn't a pretty word" "It's all right.l But you see I've never had a baby and I've never even loved any one. And I've tried to be the way you wanted and then you talk about about 'always" "We mustn't. Because there's only us two and in the world there's all the rest of them. If anything comes between us we're gone and then they have us." "He knew a great deal about cowards but nothing about the brave. The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he's intelligent. He simply doesn't mention them." "I guess we're both conceited, I said. But you are brave" "We're both brave, I said. And I'm very brave after I've had a drink." "Pity is something that is wasted on you." "That wasn't the question. I have seen self-inflicted wounds also. I asked you if you had ever known a man who had tried to disable himself by kicking himself in the scrotum. Because that is the nearest sensation to jaundice and it is a sensation that I believe few womyn have ever experienced" "-They're like us, I said. "-What'd the matter darling? "-I wish we could do something really sinful,Catherine said. "We have such a fine time, Catherine said. I don't take any interest in anything else anymore. I'm so very happy married to you." "One had so many friends in a war." "I am very tired of this war. If I was away I do not believe I would come back." "But now, baby it's all over. I don't operate now and i feel like hell. This is a terrible war, baby. You believe me when I say it. Now you cheer me up. Did you bring the phonograph records?" "I don't WANT to be you friend, baby. I AM your friend." "Already I am only happy when I am working" "No we never get anything. We are born with all we have and we never learn. We never get anything new. We all start complete." "-I don't believe both sides will stop fighting at once. "We are all gentler now because we are beaten." "-I had hoped for something. "-I don't believe in victory any more "-Yes, I said. It can't win a war but it can lose one. "Abstract words such a glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates." "-'I'll say, Bless me , father, I killed a sergeant.' They all laughed.
-I don't know, I said. There isn't always an explanation for everything."
-No. I'll always come back."
-But I do love you
-Please let's not lie when we don't have to. I had a very fine little show and I'm all right now. You see I'm not mad and I'm not gone off. It's only a little sometimes"
-Defeat is worse"
-It doesn't finish. There is no finish to a war"
-There is a class that controls a country that is stupid and does not realize anything and never can. That is why we have this war.
-Also they make money out of it.
-Most of them don't, said Passini. They are too stupid. They do it for nothing. For stupidity."
-It is never hopeless. But sometimes I cannot hope. I try always to hope but sometimes I cannot."
-Yes, he said. You do. What you tell me about in the nights. That is not love. That is only passion and lust. When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.
-I don't love.
-You will. I know you will. Then you will be happy
-I'm happy. I've always been happy.
-It is another thing. You cannot know about it unless you have it.
-Well, I said. If I ever get it I will tell you."
-Yes
-It's all right. Keep right on lying to me. That's what i want you to do"
-You'll never get married
-We will
-No you won't
-Why not?
-You'll fight before you'll marry
-We never fight
-You've time yet
-We don't fight
-You'll die then. Fight or die. That's what people do. They don't marry."
-I'll be a colonel before the war's over, Ettore said
-If they don't kill you"
-No, darling. I only want you to have enough rank so that we're admitted to the better restaurants"
-I don't care. Anywhere you want. Anywhere we don't know people."
-Nobody is like us, Catherine said. She did not mean it happily."
-I never felt like a whore before, she said. I went over to the window and pulled the curtain aside and looked out. I had not thought it would be like this.
-You're not a whore
-I know it, darling. But it isn't nice to feel like one. Her voice was dry and flat"
-Everything we do seems so innocent and simple. I can't believe we do anything wrong."
-I suppose not. It is too much to expect. But when I see the chanves in men I do not think it can go on."
-Defeat?
-No. Something more.
-There isn't anything more. Except victory. It may be worse."
-I don't. But I don't believe in defeat. Though it may be better."
-We won't talk about losing. There is enough talk about losing."
-'He's an anarchist,' Piani said. 'He doesn't go to church.'
-'Piani's an anarchist too,' Bonello said
-'Are you really anarchists?' I asked
-'No Tenente. We're socialists. We come from Imola.
-'Haven't you ever been there?'
-No
-By Christ it's a fine place, Tenente. You come there after the war and we'll show you something.
-Are you all socialists
-Everybody
-Is it a fine town?
-Wonderful. You never saw a town like that.
-How did you get to be socialists?
-Were all socialists. Everybody is a socialist. We've always been socialists.
-You come, Tenente. We'll make you a socialist too."
