Three Comrades Quotes
"The whole thing is a swindle. A wonderful swindle by Mama Nature."
"Never, never, never can a man make himself ridiculous in the eyes of a woman by anything he may do on her account."
"Do anything you like—stand on your head, talk the most utter twaddle, swank like a peacock, sing under her window—anything at all but one thing: don’t be matter-of-fact."
"Life turns into a sobbing insistent melody; out of the senseless grinding of the everlasting barrel organ, rises up a whirlwind of wild desires."
"The whole artificial structure collapses, life turns into a sobbing insistent melody; out of the senseless grinding of the everlasting barrel organ, rises up a whirlwind of wild desires, cravings, melancholy, hope, without direction seeking an object."
"Rum has very little to do with taste. It isn’t just a simple drink—it is a friend, more. A friend who makes everything easier. It changes the world."
"The man who is alone cannot be forsaken. But sometimes, at night, the whole artificial structure collapses."
"We came back from the war, like miners from a pit disaster, young and disillusioned of everything but ourselves."
"The day of great dreams for the future of mankind was past. The busybodies, the self-seekers triumphed."
"For anything more, there was too little solid ground under one’s feet."
"The more we know one another, the more we misunderstand one another. And the nearer we know one another, the more estranged we become."
"One shouldn’t overdo this money-making business."
"It’s terrible waiting for something. It’s only terrible to have nothing to wait for."
"The present had been stronger; it had always thrust aside every other thought."
"I pictured to myself that today, or tomorrow, or in the next few days, Jaffé would ring up to tell me she need not go away."
"The hope was extinguished again as swiftly as it had flickered up."
"In the working-class districts the long rows of apartment houses stood bald and desolate, like sad old prostitutes, in the rain."
"I listened to the organ which had just begun the offertory—that meant it would be twenty minutes at least before the Mass ended and the people came out."
"Fever makes you restless," said he. "Queer things happen here sometimes on days like this."
"A good few of us work," he went on; "some read whole libraries. But the majority turn into schoolchildren again."
"We might do it every morning. It takes your mind off things."
"It’s a world to itself up here. It changes people."
"A queer disease," he added thoughtfully. "It makes people more alive. And better sometimes."
"I don’t want to know any more. I only want to be happy still."
"If I can only get through this hour," she coughed, "just this hour, Robby."
"It’s over, that we’ll never understand. But you mustn’t be sad."
"If we had the making of the world it would look better, eh?"
"It must be nice when something of one remains."
"For me you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen."
"Now only we two are here; we two, you and me and no one else."
"Pat," said I. "Pat." And for the first time she did not answer me.