“You will be home before the leaves fall from the trees.”
Addressing German soldiers departing for the front in WWI (August 1914), as quoted in The Chanak Affair (1969) by David Walder, p. 21
1910s
Variant: You men will be home when the leaves fall.
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Wilhelm II, German Emperor 64
German Emperor and King of Prussia 1859–1941Related quotes

“I was walking through the leaves Falling from the trees.
Feelin' like a stranger nobody sees.”
Song lyrics, Love and Theft (2001), Mississippi

“And from the magic tree of life the fruit falls everywhere.”
The Nuts of Knowledge (1903)
Context: For sure the enchanted waters pour through every wind that blows.
I think when night towers up aloft and shakes the trembling dew
How every high and lonely thought that thrills my being through
Is but a ruddy berry dropped down through the purple air,
And from the magic tree of life the fruit falls everywhere.