“Only very young soldiers and head-cases object to boredom in war-time.”

— George MacDonald Fraser , book Quartered Safe Out Here

Source: Quartered Safe Out Here (1992), p. 212.

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 "Only very young soldiers and head-cases object to boredom in war-time." by George MacDonald Fraser?

George MacDonald Fraser photo

George MacDonald Fraser 39

English-born author of Scottish descent 1925–2008

Related quotes

“A Time For Prayer

"In times of war and not before,
God and the soldier we adore.
But in times of peace and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the soldier slighted."

-Rudyard Kipling”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

“Killing Japanese didn't bother me very much at that time… I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal…. Every soldier thinks something of the moral aspects of what he is doing. But all war is immoral and if you let that bother you, you're not a good soldier.”

Curtis LeMay (1906–1990) American general and politician

On the morality of the firebombing campaign http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/peopleevents/pandeAMEX61.html)

“Again there is a trite saying that good Soldiers never think. Though this may not be true, yet it explains the cautionary advice that War is too serious a matter to be left to Soldiers and that a very good Soldier should not be in charge of the War Office. His place should be on the battle field where he is unsurpassable. Actually, "Young men don't make War, they fight them. Old men make Wars and survive them. They are immensely brave about other people's sons," says Nicholas Montsarrat. They are the ones that jest at scars, who never felt a wound.”

Peter de Noronha (1897–1970) Indian businessman

The Pageant of Life (1964), On Soldiers

“Billy asked him if such men as had stole his eyes were only products of the war but the blind man said that since war itself was their very doing that could hardly be the case.”

Cormac McCarthy book The Crossing

The Crossing (1994)

“According to Gur's theory of boredom, everything that happens in the world today is because of boredom: love, war, inventions, fake fireplaces - ninety-five percent of all that is pure boredom.”

Etgar Keret (1967) Israeli and polish writer and screenwriter

Source: The Nimrod Flipout: Stories

“… the only difference between a young person at the height of their exuberance and a very old person who is frail and physically wasted is time.”

John O'Donohue (1956–2008) Irish writer, priest and philosopher

Source: Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

“Confusion is a luxury which only the very, very young can possibly afford and you are not that young anymore”

James Baldwin book Giovanni's Room

Source: Giovanni's Room

“All of us who served in one war or another know very well that all wars are the glory and the agony of the young.”

Gerald Ford (1913–2006) American politician, 38th President of the United States (in office from 1974 to 1977)

Address to the 75th annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Chicago, Illinois (19 August 1974)
1970s

“Thank God for the head. The head is the only place you got to be young when the usual place gets used up.”

Grace Paley (1922–2007) American writer and activist

"Zagrowsky Tells"

“O, wither’d is the garland of the war!
The soldier’s pole is fall'n; young boys and girls
Are level now with men; the odds is gone,
And there is nothing left remark
Beneath the visiting moon.”

Cleopatra VII (-69–-30 BC) last active pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt

As quoted, Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare, Act III, (1623)

Related topics