Paul Fussell Quotes

Every war is ironic because every war is worse than expected. Every war constitutes an irony of situation because its means are so melodramatically disproportionate to its presumed ends.

~ Paul Fussell

The implicit optimism of the [field service post card] is worth noting—the way it offers no provision for transmitting news like “I have lost my left leg” or “I have been admitted into hospital wounded and do not expect to recover.” Because it provided no way of saying “I am going up the line again,” its users had to improvise. Wilfred Owen had an understanding with his mother that when he used a double line to cross out “I am being sent down to the base,” he meant he was at the front again. Close to brilliant is the way the post card allows one to admit to no state of health between being “quite” well, on the one hand, and, on the other, being so sick that one is in hospital.

~ Paul Fussell

i find nothing more depressing than optimism.

~ Paul Fussell

The past, which as always did not know the future, acted in ways that ask tobe imagined before they are condemned. Or even simplified.

~ Paul Fussell

Irony is the attendant of hope and the fuel of hope is innocence.

~ Paul Fussell

If we do not redefine manhood, war is inevitable.

~ Paul Fussell

Chickenshit can be recognized instantly because it never has anything to do with winning the war.

~ Paul Fussell

Americans are the only people in the world known to me whose status anxiety prompts them to advertise their college and university affiliations in the rear window of their automobiles.

~ Paul Fussell