"All historic events are rewritten for school use....Children need examples that they can grasp, that sink in. They can find out the real truth later on." ~ The Lawyer
Junior frontline officer bear eternal grudges "against the high-ranking staff officers, who haven't the foggiest sense of bitter reality."
"the stability of the world, the power of laws, and the glory of majesties were all based on deviousness"
Before World War I, "everything that had once existed left its traces, and people lived on memories just as they now live on the ability to forget quickly and emphatically."
"women who see old age approaching...(welcome) every present like magic gift to make (them) younger"
Sickness was merely nature's way of getting people accustomed to death ~ Herr von Trotta
"There were times in every man's life when he had to drink." ~ Major Zoglauer
"Appealing to luck on a Friday was like expecting a medical officer to drill a company." ~ Captain Wagner
"it (is) easier to stop gambling than to stop living" ~ Captain Wagner
"There is a fear of voluptuousness that is itself voluptuous, just as a certain fear of death can itself be deadly."
“the drinker’s thirst…is a thirst of soul and body. Suddenly you see dimly like a person who’s nearsighted, you hear poorly like a person who’s hard of hearing. You need to have a drink right away, on the spot.”
"the ammunition you need for freedom is money" ~ Lieutenant Trotte
freedom is as “different from a furlough as a war is from maneuvers”
“troops are demoralized by boredom, while rifle drills boost their morale”
"war is the soldier's freedom"
In the army even the emperor (is) a soldier.
"it does not behoove an emperor to be as smart as his advisers"
"it does not behoove an emperor to compete with wags and sophisticates"
“it does not behoove an old emperor to show that he sees through a trick and can shoot better than a gamekeeper….it does not behoove an emperor to know he is being smirked at, and this smirk is foolish so long as he refuses to notice it”
"ten good sergeants are a lot more useful than twenty general staff officer" ~ Emperor Franz Joseph
“’national minorities’(are) nothing but large communities of ‘revolutionary individuals’” ~ Herr von Trotta
"No man can bear responsibility for another." ~ Dr. Skowronnek
“a lot of truths about the living world are recorded in bad books; they are just as badly written”
"no instincts are more expensive than the instincts of a true gentleman"
“it is in (women’s) nature to be rejuvenated by kindness and compassion and also by the external insignia of compassion.”
At the start of the 20th Century, “commoners were second-class human beings yet certain middle-class officers became personal adjutants to the Kaiser;…Jews could claim no higher distinctions yet certain Jews were knighted and became friends with archdukes;…women had to observe traditional morality yet certain women could philander like a cavalry officer. Those were principles that would be labeled ‘hypocritical’ today because we are so much more relentless: relentless, honest, and humorless," but these exceptions to aristocratic principles were even liked back then.
"All historic events are rewritten for school use....Children need examples that they can grasp, that sink in. They can find out the real truth later on." ~ The Lawyer