Eugene B. Sledge Quotes

• I am the harvest of man's stupidity. I am the fruit of the holocaust. I prayed like you to survive, but look at me now. It is over for us who are dead, but you must struggle, and will carry the memories all your life. People back home will wonder why you can't forget.

  Eugene B. Sledge

  Life, Memories, War

  Eugene B Sledge (2010). “With the Old Breed: The World War Two Pacific Classic”, p.272, Random House

  67 Copy quote

• Until the millennium arrives and countries cease trying to enslave others, it will be necessary to accept one's responsibilities and be willing to make sacrifices for one's country - as my comrades did. As the troops used to say, "If the country is good enough to live in, it's good enough to fight for." With privilege goes responsibility.

  Eugene B. Sledge

  Country, Responsibility, Fighting

  54 Copy quote

• War is brutish, inglorious, and a terrible waste... The only redeeming factors were my comrades' incredible bravery and their devotion to each other. Marine Corps training taught us to kill efficiently and to try to survive. But it also taught us loyalty to each other - and love. That espirit de corps sustained us.

  Eugene B. Sledge

  Loyalty, War, Marine

  32 Copy quote

• I asked God "Why, why, why?" I turned my face away and wished that I were imagining it all. I had tasted the bitterest essence of war, the sight of helpless comrades being slaughtered, and it filled me with disgust.

  Eugene B. Sledge

  War, Sight, Essence

  Eugene B Sledge (2010). “With the Old Breed: The World War Two Pacific Classic”, p.61, Random House

  26 Copy quote

• To the non-combatants and those on the periphery of action, the war meant only boredom or occasional excitement, but to those who entered the meat grinder itself the war was a netherworld of horror from which escape seemed less and less likely as casualties mounted and the fighting dragged on and on. Time had no meaning, life had no meaning. The fierce struggle for survival in the abyss of Peleliu had eroded the veneer of civilization and made savages of us all.

  Eugene B. Sledge

  War, Struggle, Fighting

  27 Copy quote

• As I crawled out of the abyss of combat and over the rail of the Sea Runner, I realized that compassion for the sufferings of others is a burden to those who have it. As Wilfred Owen's poem "Insensibility" puts it so well, those who feel most of others suffer most in war.

  Eugene B. Sledge

  War, Compassion, Sea

  18 Copy quote

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