76 Quotes by Karl Marlantes

"This nation should be less worried about putting the Vietnam syndrome behind us than restarting the World War II victory syndrome that resulted in the Vietnam syndrome in the first place."

"He thought of the jungle, already regrowing around him to cover the scars they had created. He thought of the tiger, killing to eat. Was that evil? And ants? They killed. No, the jungle wasn’t evil. It was indifferent. So, too, was the world. Evil, then, must be the negation of something man had added to the world. Ultimately, it was caring about something that made the world liable to evil. Caring. And then the caring gets torn asunder. Everybody dies, but not everybody cares."

"He lay before God as a woman opens herself to a man, with legs apart, stomach exposed, arms open. But unlike some women, he did not have the inner strength that allowed them to do such a thing without fear. There was no woman’s strength in Mellas at all."

"It was all absurd, without reason or meaning. People who didn't know each other were going to kill each other over a hill none of them cared about"

"How could you get mad at someone who neither needed to attack nor was at all worried about being able to defend? It was like getting mad at Switzerland."

"Victory in combat is like sex with a prostitute. For a moment you forget everything in the sudden physical rush, but then you have to pay your money to the woman showing you the door. You see the dirt on the walls and your sorry image in the mirror."

"Matterhorn is my metaphor of the Vietnam War - we built it, we abandoned it, we assaulted it, we lost, and then we abandoned it again."

"Quitting is unthinkable and pain is just weakness leaving the body."

"It was all absurd, without reason or meaning. People who didn’t know each other were going to kill each other over a hill none of them cared about."

"When the peace treaty is signed, the war isn’t over for the veterans, or the family. It’s just starting."