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The Moon Is Down QUOTES

The Moon Is Down QUOTES

1 " Lanser had been in Belgium and France twenty years before and he tried not to think what he knew—that war is treachery and hatred, the muddling of incompetent generals, the torture and killing and sickness and tiredness, until at last it is over and nothing has changed except for new weariness and new hatreds. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

2 " You are not a man anymore. You are a soldier. Your comfort is of no importance and your life isn’t of much importance. Most of your orders will be unpleasant, but that’s not your business.They should’ve trained you for this, and not for flower-strewn streets. They should have built your soul with truth, not led along with lies. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

3 " Only once or twice in her life had she ever understood all of him, but the part of him which she knew, she knew intricately and well. No little appetite or pain, no carelessness or meanness in him escaped her; no thought or dream or longing in him ever reached her. And yet several times in her life she had seen the stars. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

4 " They think that just because they have only one leader and one head, we are all like that. They know that ten heads lopped off will destroy them, but we are a free people; we have as many heads as we have people, and in a time of need leaders pop up among us like mushrooms. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

5 " Lanser said, "There are no peaceful people, when will you learn it? There are no friendly people, can't you understand that? "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

6 " And the girl,' Lanser continued, 'the girl, Lieutenant, you may rape her, or protect her, or marry her--that is of no importance so long as you shoot her when it is ordered. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

7 " The fool supply was controlled... "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

8 " They know that ten heads lopped off will destroy them, but we are a free people; we have as many heads as we have people, and in a time of need leaders pop up among us like mushrooms. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

9 " Free men cannot start a war, but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

10 " I am a little man and this is a little town, but there must be a spark in little men that can burst into flame. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

11 " The flies have conquered the flypaper. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

12 " I have no choice of living or dying, you see, sir--but I do have a choice of how I do it. If I tell them not to fight, they will be sorry, but they will fight. If I tell them to fight, they will be glad, and I who am not a very brave man will have made them a little braver. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

13 " Defeat is a momentary thing. A defeat doesn't last. We were defeated and now we attack. Defeat means nothing. Can't you understand that? Do you know what they are whispering behind doors? "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

14 " I'm tired of people who have not been at war who know all about it. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

15 " I have no choice of living or dying, you see, sir, but I do have a choice of how I do it. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

16 " war is treachery and hatred, the muddling of incompetent generals, the torture and killing and sickness and tiredness, until at last it is over and nothing has changed except for new weariness and new hatreds. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

17 " In marching, in mobs, in football games, and in war, outlines become vague; real things become unreal and a fog creeps over the mind. Tension and excitement, weariness, movement--all merge in one great gray dream, so that when it is over, it is hard to remember how it was when you killed men or ordered them to be killed. Then other people who were not there tell you what it was like and you say vaguely, "yes, I guess that's how it was. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

18 " That is a great mystery,” said Doctor Winter. “That is a mystery that has disturbed rulers all over the world—how the people know. It disturbs the invaders now, I am told, how news runs through censorships, how the truth of things fights free of control. It is a great mystery. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

19 " If he considered God at all, he thought of Him as an old and honored general, retired and gray, living among remembered battles and putting wreaths on the graves of his lieutenants several times a year. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down

20 " And the hatred was deep in the eyes of the people, beneath the surface. "

― John Steinbeck , The Moon Is Down