"A true idealist strives for money. Money is mental freedom. And freedom is life. [...] One shouldn't talk scornfully about money. It's money brings many a woman a lover. Love on the other hand makes many a man avaricious. Money therefore furthers the ideal—love versus materialism. The man [...] only becomes avaricious as a result of the woman's desires. If there weren't women there wouldn't be money, and the men would be a race of heroes. In the trenches there were no women—it didn't count for much there, either, how well off a man was. It came back to what he was as a man. And that's not to say anything for the trenches; that's only to show love up in its true light. It rouses the evil instincts in man—the urge to possession, standing, profits, comfort. It's not for nothing dictators like to see their subordinates married—that way they are less dangerous. And not for nothing do Catholic priests have no wives—they would never be such bold missionaries otherwise."
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Three Comrades
Three Comrades (German: Drei Kameraden) is a 1936 novel by the German author Erich Maria Remarque. English translation of the novel was done in 1958 by Arthur Wheen.
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