Michael Shaara Quotes (20 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

Part I, CH 2: Chamberlain, p. 29
The Killer Angels (1974)
Context: But he was fighting for the dignity of man and in that way he was fighting for himself. If men were equal in America, all these former Poles and English and Czechs and lacks, then they were equal everywhere, and there was really no such thing as a foreigner; there were only free men and slaves. And so it was not even patriotism but a new faith. The Frenchman may fight for France, but the American fights for mankind, for freedom; for the people, not the land.

“If the war goes on-and it will, it will-what else can we do but go on? It is the same question forever, what else can we do? If they fight, we will fight with them. And does it matter after all who wins? Was that ever really the question? Will God ask that question, in the end?”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

General Robert E. Lee, Part IV, CH 5: Longsteet, p.360
The Killer Angels (1974)

“I was trying to warn you. But… you have no Cause. You and I, we have no Cause. We have only the army. But if a soldier fights only for soldiers, he cannot ever win. It is only the soldiers who die.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

General Robert E. Lee, Part IV, CH 5: Longsteet, p.361
The Killer Angels (1974)

“Men cannot be threatened into the kind of fight they will have to put up to win. They will have to be led.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Part III, CH 2: Chamberlain, p. 185
The Killer Angels (1974)

Michael Shaara Quotes

“They are volunteers: last of the great volunteer armies, for the draft is beginning that summer in the North. They have lost faith in their leaders but not in themselves.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Foreword, June 1863: 1. The Armies
The Killer Angels (1974)

“I've been thinking on your theories of defensive war, and look, Pete, if you don't mind the opinion of an aging military genius, just this once? Technically, by God, you're probably right. Hell, you're undoubtable right. This may be a time for defensive war. But, Pete, this aint the army for it. We aren't bred for the defense.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Lewis Armistead, Part I, CH 4: Longstreet, p. 59
The Killer Angels (1974)

“He had forgotten the Cause. When the guns began firing he had forgotten it completely.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Part IV, CH 6: Chamberlain, p. 365
The Killer Angels (1974)

“Oh, by the way, there's a story going around, do you know? They say that General Lee was asleep, and the army was marching by, and fifteen thousand men went by on tiptoe so as not to wake him.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Lt. Col Arthur Fremantle, Part II, CH 5: Longstreet, p. 130
The Killer Angels (1974)

“It is unbecoming to a soldier, all this book-learning.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

George Pickett, Part I, CH 4: Longstreet, p. 53
The Killer Angels (1974)

“One thing I'm very glad to see. Your General Lee is a moralist, as are all true gentlemen, of course, but he respects minor vice, harmless vice, when he finds it in others. Now that's the mark of a true gentlemen. That is what distinguishes the man so to me, aside from his military prowess, of course. The true gentlemen has no vices, but he allows you your own.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Lt. Col Arthur Freemantle, Part II, CH 5: Longstreet, p. 130
The Killer Angels (1974)

“The man was looking his way, with glasses. Buford waved. You never knew what old friend was out there. The Reb officer took off his hat, bowed formally.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

Part I, CH 3: Buford, p. 39
The Killer Angels (1974)

“General Meade has his son as adjutant.”

Michael Shaara book The Killer Angels

<br/k> "That's different. Generals can do anything. Nothing quite so much like God on earth as a general on a battlefield."
Thomas Chamberlain and Joshua Chamberlain, Part I, CH 2: Chamberlain, p. 29
The Killer Angels (1974)