WIST Quotations

Greenwood, Kerry -- Phryne Fisher, Book 20, Murder and Mendelssohn, ch. 7 (2013)

Dave — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 21:14:59 +0000

“I always found faith a great comfort. Otherwise it is too much, Phryne. Too cruel. To think that all the lads, all those boys, were just gone, blown out like candles. Don’t you agree?”
“I do,” said Phryne. “I like to think of them sitting down with all their mates to a serious drinking session, washed clean of mud and stench, all shiny and jolly. And if that doesn’t constitute heaven, I’m not going; though, of course, I might not have the option.”

Kerry Greenwood (b. 1954) Australian author and lawyer
Phryne Fisher, Book 20, Murder and Mendelssohn, ch. 7 (2013)

Phryne talking with John Wilson about the Great War.

Martin, George R. R. -- Interview (2014-04-23) by Mikal Gilmore, “The Rolling Stone Interview,” Rolling Stone

Dave — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 22:06:39 +0000

World War I is much more typical of the wars of history than World War II — the kind of war you look back afterward and say, “What the hell were we fighting for? Why did all these millions of people have to die? Was it really worth it to get rid of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, that we wiped out an entire generation, and tore up half the continent? Was the War of 1812 worth fighting? The Spanish-American War? What the hell were these people fighting for?”

George R. R. Martin (b. 1948) American author and screenwriter [George Raymond Richard Martin]
Interview (2014-04-23) by Mikal Gilmore, “The Rolling Stone Interview,” Rolling Stone

Dickinson, Lowes -- “The War and the Way Out: A Further Consideration,” sec. 2, Atlantic Monthly (Apr 1915)

Dave — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 20:32:55 +0000

A war which is destroying men as they have never been destroyed before, from which at the best the nations will emerge permanently degraded in their stock, poorer in physique, duller in intelligence, weaker in will than they went in, this war is to be protracted until the whole manhood of Europe is decimated, in order — in order to what? Let us ask in detail.
In order, we are told, that the Germans may ‘feel they are beaten.’ And then? They will be good in future? They will admit they were wrong? They will lick the hand that chastised them? Who believes it? The more completely they are beaten, the more obstinately they will be set on recovery. When France was beaten to the dust in 1870, did she repent for having provoked the war? On the contrary, she gathered up her forces for revenge. And Germany will do the same.

G. Lowes Dickinson (1862–1932) British political scientist and philosopher [Goldsworthy "Goldie" Lowes Dickinson]
“The War and the Way Out: A Further Consideration,” sec. 2, Atlantic Monthly (Apr 1915)

Taylor, A. J. P. -- The First World War: A Illustrated History, ch. 1 (1963)

Dave — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 15:06:15 +0000

The great armies, accumulated to provide security and preserve the peace, carried the nations to war by their own weight.

A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) British historian, journalist, broadcaster [Alan John Percivale Taylor]
The First World War: A Illustrated History, ch. 1 (1963)

Forster, E. M. -- Letter to Malcolm Darling (6 Nov 1914)

Dave — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 15:45:18 +0000

The newspapers still talk about glory but the average man, thank God, has got rid of that illusion. It is a damned bore, with a stalemate as the most probable outcome, but one has to see it through, and see it through with the knowledge that whichever side wins, civilisation in Europe will be pipped for the next 30 years. Don’t indulge in Romance here, Malcolm, or suppose that an era of jolly little nationalities is dawning. We shall be much too much occupied with pestilence and poverty to reconstruct.

E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English novelist, essayist, critic, librettist [Edward Morgan Forster]
Letter to Malcolm Darling (6 Nov 1914)