"“I must conclude that my views on the subject are also the views of the large majority of the American people.” That was probably true. Because of it, Flora did not have a good opinion of the political wisdom of the large majority of the American people. Nationalism kept too many from voting their class interests."

"“Maybe we’ll get some use out of battleships in the next war after all.” He didn’t doubt there would be a next war; there would always be a next war."

"The only people who love a war are those who have never fought in one."

"Potter studied him. “I never have figured out how smart you are, Featherston, but you’ve made it plain you’re shrewd enough and to spare. If you hadn’t made the fatal mistake of being right at the wrong time, we might have the same rank by now.”"

"I’ll tell you, though, this whole business of war would be a hell of a lot more fun if you didn’t get shot."

"Some of those men were black, the new units going forward along with the white troops who have been in the field for years. The Negro soldiers charged straight at the U.S. trenches; they weren’t skilled in the fire-and-move tactics the veterans had learned by painful experience. And they went down in gruesome numbers. When they screamed, Bartlett couldn’t tell their voices from those of white men."

"Lieutenant Crowder reported that submersible as probably destroyed, and if you don’t think Lieutenant Crowder knows everything in the world, well, shit, just ask him."

"She was only eight years old, and still confused the way things should have been with the way they were."

"He sees the country going forward. He doesn’t see the suffering he’s creating to make it go in the direction he wants."

"The bullet doesn’t care who shot it, only where it’s going."

"Moss sighed and nodded. Might-have-beens was a stupid game, when you got right down to it. Look back on things, and you couldn’t help but see they’d come out the way they had to come out."

"A fisherman who wasn’t a born pessimist hadn’t been going to sea long enough."

"When you lose, Sis, the last war’s never over and done with."

"You have a fine stump speech there, Congresswoman, and I think you are sincere in it, but it doesn’t altogether match the way the world works."

"“The War Department has all sorts of opinions,” he said, sneering as he had when Dowling announced the Roosevelt was there. “A few of them bear a discernible relation to the real world—but only a few, mind you.”"

"“Major Potter isn’t a pal—not exactly, anyhow.” As far as he could see, the only thing he and the bespectacled major had in common was an unbounded contempt for the bluebloods who, because of who their grandfathers had been, got a higher rank and a bigger arena in which to display their blunders than they deserved."

"The War Department had never forgiven Jake for being right."

"Fashion made a harsh mistress."

"Martin was convinced the military police attracted self-righteous sons of bitches the way spilled sugar drew ants."

"“It’s not the way it was any more,” he said, half to himself. “Nothing is the way it was anymore.”"

"Whites are so mystified, they put race ahead of class."

"They’d kill him or he’d kill them. War reduced everything to a brutal simplicity."

"Anyone who forces something on someone and then says he will be better for it—you will, I hope, understand me when I say this is difficult to appreciate."

"Anytime a politician said he wouldn’t beat around the bush, you were well advised to keep your hand on your wallet."

"“What’s obvious,” Morrell observed, “isn’t always true.”"

"“Life is hard.” Rodriguez shrugged. “And after life is done, then you die.” He shrugged again. “What can anyone do?” It was a good question. It was, when Pinkard thought about it, a very good question. If there were any better questions out there, he had no idea what they might be. “You do the best you can, is all,” he answered slowly, and then looked around at the hole in the ground in the middle of nowhere he was currently inhabiting. “If this here is the best I can do, I been doin’ somethin’ wrong up till now.”"

"The newspapers extolled every skirmish as one Bonaparte would have admired (clumsy propaganda, in a province that had never reconciled itself to the French revolution), but anyone who believed all the newspapers said deserved nothing better than he got."

"Something does stink down in Richmond. If we try to root it out now, we are liable to lose the war in the confusion that would follow. But if we don’t try to root it out, we are liable to lose the war from the confusion it causes."

"No, he hadn’t a clue. She studied him—perfect coif, perfect clothes, perfect confidence. Inside, where it didn’t show, she smiled a hunter’s smile. Perfect target."

"Any time you could split the difference between what you really wanted and what you would settle for, you weren’t doing too bad."

"When Cassius was optimistic about the way the fighting was going, he was often wrong; when he was pessimistic, he was always right."

"But destroying white privilege only boosted white fear."

"He truly did not seem to realize that terrorizing everyone who was not ardently on his side to begin with would ensure that he drew few new supporters."

"“We’d never—” Alexander began, but he didn’t finish the sentence. When you were in a war, who could say what you might be driven to do?"

"When you were fifteen, you knew everything always turned out fine in the end. Arthur McGregor was a good deal past twice fifteen. He knew how foolish you were at that age."

"The lad was at an age where he was inclined to believe things would turn out as he wanted for no better reason than that he wanted them to turn out so."

"“How am I supposed to surprise you, Lucius?” He spread his hands and shrugged. “As long as we’ve been married, and you still expect to surprise me? You make me happy. That is enough, and more than enough. What do I need of surprises?”"

"When war reached out its hand, what did wealth and power matter? A fool with a gun could take them away. A fool with a gun had just taken them away."

"He’d learned to strip and clean and reassemble the machine gun till he could do it with his eyes closed. It was an elegantly simple means of killing large numbers of men in a hurry, assuming that was what you wanted to do."

"Nobody was supposed to shoot at people wearing Red Cross armbands, but bullets, as he’d learned too well, weren’t fussy about whom they hit."

"The paper was shipped up from the USA, and full of lies; since the demise of the Rosenfeld Register (which had been only half full of lies), no local paper had been permitted. But even lies could be interesting if they were new lies: why else did people read so many books and magazines?"

"The Book of Mormon is no more the word of God than is an advertising circular for stomach powders."

"Shouldering the bag, Moss made for the canvas tents that housed his new squadron. Such arrangements were all very well now, with the weather warm, but could you live in a tent in the middle of winter? Maybe the war would be over and he wouldn’t have to find out. He clicked tongue between teeth. He believed nonsense like that the year before. He was a tougher sell now."

"Know what you’re doing and you’ll never need to cheat."

"“How come they get to call us names whenever they please and we don’t get to call them names whenever we please? That’s not fair.” “Because they have more guns than we do, and they drove our soldiers out of this part of the country,” he told her. “If you have more guns in a war, you get to say what’s fair.”"

"Isaac might have been emboldened by the whiskey, for he asked Yossel Reisen, “What—is it like at the front?” Emboldened or not, he sounded hesitant. Yossel looked into the depths of his glass as he had looked through Flora. At last, he answered, “Think of all the worst things you know in the world. Think of them all in one place. Think of them as ten times as bad as they really are. Then think of them ten times worse than that. What you are thinking about when you do that is one ten-thousandth of what the front is like.” Nobody asked him any more questions."

"Scott said, “If things had gone the way they were supposed to, we’d have been in Philadelphia a long time ago.” “Yeah, and if pigs had wings, we’d all carry umbrellas,” Featherstone replied with a snort “When you’ve been through even a little more fighting, kid, you’re going to see that things just don’t go the way they’re supposed to.”"

"Being sure wasn’t the same thing as being right."

"War would have been a much simpler, easier business with politics out of the mix."

"The countryside looked as if hell had been there, but had gone away on vacation."