“As far as they were concerned, gunfire was nothing but noise. That’s why wars can keep going. Even the people who make them, who fight in them, don’t really get the picture. Even with a bullet in their gut, they’d go on picking up old shoes that “might come in handy.” The way a sheep, lying on its side in a meadow, will keep on grazing with its dying breath. Most people don’t die until the last moment; others start twenty years in advance, sometimes more. Those are the unfortunates.”

—  Louis-ferdinand Céline , book Journey to the End of the Night

Source: Journey to the End of the Night (1932), Chapter 4

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Louis-ferdinand Céline photo
Louis-ferdinand Céline 88
French writer 1894–1961

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