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Paul Fussell Quotes

Paul Fussell quotes

American Historian March 22, 1924 – May 23, 2012

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  • Quotes Topics

  • war

Quotes

Chickenshit refers to behavior that makes military life worse than it need be: petty harassment of the weak by the strong; open scrimmage for power and authority and prestige; sadism thinly disguised as necessary discipline; a constant 'paying off of old scores'; and insistence on the letter rather than the spirit of ordinances. Paul Fussell
The day after the British entered the war Henry James wrote a friend: The plunge of civilization into this abyss of blood and darkness... is a thing that so gives away the whole long age during which we have supposed the world to be, with whatever abatement, gradually bettering, that to have to take it all now for what the treacherous years were all the while really making for and meaning is too tragic for any words. Paul Fussell
Another reason is that the letters are almost always funny, offering readers the spectacle of some pompous self-celebrator given ample ironic room in which to parade his self-solicited hurt. Paul Fussell
When ... asked what I am writing, I have answered, "A book about social class in America," ... It is if I had said, "I am working on a book urging the beating to death of baby whales using the dead bodies of baby seals. Paul Fussell
Paul Fussell quote: "I find nothing more depressing than optimism."
I find nothing more depressing than optimism. Paul Fussell
So many bright futures consigned to the ashes of the past. So many dreams lost in the madness that had engulfed us. Except for a few widely scattered shouts of joy, the survivors of the abyss sat hollow-eyed and silent, trying to comprehend a world without war. Paul Fussell
Today the Somme is a peaceful but sullen place, unforgetting and unforgiving. ... To wander now over the fields destined to extrude their rusty metal fragments for centuries is to appreciate in the most intimate way the permanent reverberations of July, 1916. When the air is damp you can smell rusted iron everywhere, even though you see only wheat and barley. Paul Fussell
Americans are the only people in the world known to me whose status anxiety prompts them to advertise their college and university affiliations in the rear window of their automobiles. Paul Fussell
Paul Fussell quote: "If I didn't have writing, I'd be running down the street..."
If I didn't have writing, I'd be running down the street hurling grenades in people's faces. Paul Fussell
Every war is ironic because every war is worse than expected. Every war constitutes an irony of situation because its means are so melodramatically disproportionate to its presumed ends. Paul Fussell
Paul Fussell quote: "The more violent the body contact of the sports you watch, the..."
The more violent the body contact of the sports you watch, the lower the class. Paul Fussell
Paul Fussell quote: "Chickenshit can be recognized instantly because it never has..."
Chickenshit can be recognized instantly because it never has anything to do with winning the war. Paul Fussell
Paul Fussell quote: "The worst thing about war was the sitting around and wondering..."
The worst thing about war was the sitting around and wondering what you were doing morally. Paul Fussell
Paul Fussell quote: "If truth is the main casualty in war, ambiguity is another."
If truth is the main casualty in war, ambiguity is another. Paul Fussell

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