For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress -- to the future.
Erich Maria RemarqueRead
Yes, that's the way they think, these hundred thousand Kantoreks! Iron Youth! Youth! We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? That is long ago. We are old folk.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the fleeting nature of youth and the heavy burdens that experiences impose on individuals.
In this quote, Erich Maria Remarque expresses a profound observation about the loss of youth amid the trials of life. Even though the characters are physically young, their experiences in war have aged them mentally and emotionally, highlighting that true age is not merely a factor of years lived, but of life experiences endured. The term 'Iron Youth' contrasts the idealized notion of youthful vigor with the stark reality of their burdens, emphasizing the psychological toll imposed by conflict.
Themes
YouthExperienceWarAgingPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech discussing the impact of war on personal development.
More from Erich Maria Remarque
All quotes →They are more human and more brotherly towards one another, it seems to me, than we are. But perhaps that is merely because they feel themselves to be more unfortunate than us.
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Anyway the war is over so far as they are concerned. But to wait for dysentery is not much of a life either.
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We are little flames poorly sheltered by frail walls against the storm of dissolution and madness, in which we flicker and sometimes almost go out…we creep in upon ourselves and with big eyes stare into the night…and thus we wait for morning.
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There was only the broad square with the scattered dim moons of the street lamps and with the monumental stone arch which receded into the mist as though it would prop up the melancholy sky and protect beneath itself the faint lonely flame on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which looked like the last grave of mankind in the midst of night and loneliness.
Erich Maria RemarqueRead
(Ravic speaking of a butterfly caught in the Louvre) In the morning it would search for flowers and life and the light honey of blossoms and would not find them and later it would fall asleep on millennial marble, weakened by then, until the grip of the delicate, tenacious feet loosened and it fell, a thin leaf of premature autumn.
Erich Maria RemarqueRead
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