It was such a heavenly dream: dreamed between the reality of war and the reality of hereditary madness.

Breakfast alone by gaslight is about as ghastly as champagne in daylight.

There is nothing more harrowing than a deadly hush with the feel of a great noise around it

I know. I was there. I saw the great void in your soul, and you saw mine.

But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

He had volunteered early, rather than waiting to be conscripted, for he felt a duty and an obligation to serve, and believed that ... being willing to fight for his country and the liberty it represented, would make some small difference. ... His idealism was one of the casualties of the carnage [of Verdun].