“Soldiers live. And wonder why.”

—  Glen Cook , book Water Sleeps

Source: Water Sleeps (1999), Chapter 60 (p. 212; repeated on p. 356)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Soldiers live. And wonder why." by Glen Cook?
Glen Cook photo
Glen Cook 205
American fiction writer 1944

Related quotes

Glen Cook photo

“Soldiers live. He dies and not you, and you feel guilty, because you're glad he died, and not you. Soldiers live, and wonder why.”

Glen Cook book Soldiers Live

Source: Soldiers Live (2000), Chapter 99, “By the Military Cemetery: Missing Persons” (p. 664)
Context: “It doesn’t make much sense, does it?” my darling whispered to me. “People go at the oddest times and from the oddest causes.”
“Soldiers live,” I muttered.
“You’re turning that into a mantra.”
“You feel guilty. You wonder why him and not me, then you’re glad it was him and not you, then you feel guilty. Soldiers live. And wonder why.”

Omar Bradley photo

“To those soldiers who must often have wondered WHY they were going where they did. Perhaps this will help answer their questions.”

Omar Bradley (1893–1981) United States Army field commander during World War II

Dedication
A Soldier's Story (1951)

“I understand why some men become soldiers: to protect the nation and all that. But a whole race of people living to be soldiers seems … unhealthy.”

David Gemmell book Legend

ibid
Drenai series, Legend, Pt 1: Against the Horde

Andy Partridge photo

“I wonder wonder why the wonder falls
I wonder why the wonder falls on me
I wonder wonder why the wonder falls
With everything I touch and hear and see”

Andy Partridge (1953) British musician

Theme song to Wonderfalls (2004).

Bill Whittle photo

“And why do soldiers wear uniforms? It certainly is not to protect the soldier. As a matter of fact, a soldier’s uniform is actually a big flashing neon arrow pointing to some kid that says to the enemy, SHOOT ME!”

Bill Whittle (1959) author, director, screenwriter, editor

SANCTUARY (part 1) https://web.archive.org/web/20050521031500/http://ejectejecteject.com/archives/000125.html (18 May 2005)
2000s

Kurt Vonnegut photo

“When I was a naive young recruit in Spain, I used to wonder why soldiers bayoneted oil paintings, shot the noses off statues and defecated into grand pianos. I now understand: it was to teach civilians the deepest sort of respect for men in uniform — uncontrollable fear.”

Kurt Vonnegut Happy Birthday, Wanda June

"Harold Ryan"
Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970)

Heinrich Böll photo

“He avoids the official "heroes'" cemetery, done in such impeccable taste. Why, he wonders, do the Germans do so much for their dead and so little for the living?”

Heinrich Böll (1917–1985) German author, novelist, and short story writer

You Enter Germany (1967); cited from Aufsätze, Kritiken, Reden (Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1967) p. 278. Translation: "You are Now Entering Germany", in Leila Vennewitz (trans.) Missing Persons and Other Essays (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1994) p. 48.

Suraj Sani photo

“The highest obligation of a soldier is not to die in war but to live through it.”

Suraj Sani (1996) Nigerian writer, Spoken word artist

P. 127. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10937449-the-highest-obligation-of-a-soldier-is-not-to-die

Related topics