What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder read more

What is absurd and monstrous about war is that men who have no personal quarrel should be trained to murder one another in cold blood.

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.

There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so read more

There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever.

Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology.

Before a war military science seems a real science, like astronomy; but after a war it seems more like astrology.

War is the unfolding of miscalculations.

War is the unfolding of miscalculations.

The tragedy of war is that it uses man's best to do man's worst.

The tragedy of war is that it uses man's best to do man's worst.

Where is the indignation about the fact that the United States and Soviet Union have accumulated thirty thousand pounds of read more

Where is the indignation about the fact that the United States and Soviet Union have accumulated thirty thousand pounds of destructive force for every human being in the world?

When every autumn people said it could not last through the winter, and when every spring there was still no read more

When every autumn people said it could not last through the winter, and when every spring there was still no end in sight, only the hope that out of it all some good would accrue to mankind kept men and nations fighting. When at last it was over, the war had many diverse results and one dominant one transcending all others: disillusion.

The history of those who shed those other tears, the history of those anonymous millions, is what Terkel wants readers read more

The history of those who shed those other tears, the history of those anonymous millions, is what Terkel wants readers and listeners to come away with. What's it like to be that goofy little soldier, scared stiff, with his bayonet aimed at Christ? What's it like to have been a woman in a defense-plant job during World War II? What's it like to be a kid at the front lines? It's all funny and tragic at the same time.