Paul Bäumer:you still think it's beautiful to die for your country. The first bombardment taught us better. When it comes to dying for country, it's better not to die at all.
Katczinsky:I'll tell you how it should all be done.
[spits]
Katczinsky:Whenever there's a big war comin' on, you should rope off a big field...
Cigar-smoking soldier:And sell tickets.
Katczinsky:Yeah. And -
[glares at interrupter]
Katczinsky:And on the big day, you should take all the kings and their cabinets and their generals, put 'em in the center dressed in their underpants, and let 'em fight it out with clubs. The best country wins.
[everybody murmurs in agreement]
Paul Bäumer:Well, now that Kat's settled everything, let's go see Kemmerick.
Paul Bäumer:We live in the trenches out there. We fight. We try not to be killed, but sometimes we are. That's all.
[last lines]
Second orderly:Your deal. Get his name and number?
Medic Orderly:Yeah. Corporal Stanislaus Katczinsky, 306.
[first title card]
Title card:This story is neither an accusation nor a confession, and least of all an adventure, for death is not an adventure to those who stand face to face with it. It will try simply to tell of a generation of men who, even though they may have escaped its shells, were destroyed by the war...
[first lines]
Man cleaning doorknob:Thirty thousand.
Maid:From the Russians?
Man cleaning doorknob:No, from the French. From the Russians we capture more than that every day.
Tjaden:Me and the Kaiser, we are both fighting. The only difference is the Kaiser isn't here!
Paul Bäumer:And our bodies are earth. And our thoughts are clay. And we sleep and eat with death.
Paul Bäumer:War isn't the way it looks back here.
Schoolmaster:[to his students] You are the life of the Fatherland! You are the iron men of Germany!
Katczinsky:[entering and seeing the new recruits] What is this?
Tjaden:[sarcastically] Volunteers for the future general's staff.
Katczinsky:[to the recruits] Oh, sometime I'm gonna take one of you volunteers apart and find out what makes you leave school and join the army. At ease. This is no parade ground.
Katczinsky:[to Detering, Westhus, and Tjaden] I wish you three would get bumped off. I抦 tired of feeding you for nothing.
Franz Kemmerich:[after risking his life to bring back Behn] He's dead!... He's dead!
Katczinsky:[angrily] Why did you risk your life bringin' him in?
Franz Kemmerich:[very upset] But it's Behn! My friend!
Katczinsky:He's a corpse - no matter who it is...