journeys end quotes

• Hardy: 'Swish — swish — swish — swish — bang! A dug-out got blown up and came down in the men’s tea. They were frightfully annoyed.'
• Hardy: 'Oh, you each have an earwig, and start ’em in a line. On the word “Go” you dig your earwig in the ribs and steer him with a match across the table. Well, if you want to get the best pace out of an earwig, dip it in whiskey — makes ’em go like hell!'
• Hardy: 'I suppose he didn’t think he was fit to meet papa. (A pause.) You know his father’s vicar of a country village?'
• Osborne: 'Lost control of himself; and then he — sort of — came to — and cried.. We tried to hush it up…Osborne, you ought to be commanding this company.'
• Hardy: 'Oh, no; 25 right leg and 9 left leg.'
• Hardy asked where the men sleep

  Hardy: I don’t know
• Hardy: 'Drank a whole bottle in one hour fourteen minutes — we timed him.'
• Osborne: 'I hope we’re lucky and get a youngster straight from school. They’re the kind that do best.'
• Osborne: 'Rugger and cricket seem a long way from here.'
• Osborne: 'You know, Raleigh, you mustn’t expect to find him — quite the same. Osborne: You see, he’s been out here a long time. It — it tells on a man — rather badly'
• Osborne: 'You must remember he’s commanded this company for a long time — through all sorts of rotten times. It’s — it’s a big strain on a man.'
• Despite his stars of rank he is no more than a boy; tall, sl
• An amazing trench — turning and twisting for miles, over a sort of plain. Very lights
• Osborne: 'We are, generally, just waiting for something. When anything happens, it happens quickly. Then we just start waiting again.'
• Osborne: 'Nearly three years. He came out straight from school — when he was eighteen. He’s commanded this company for a year — in and out of the front line. He’s never had a rest. I’ve seen him on his back all day with trench fever — then on duty all night…And because he’s stuck it till his nerves have got battered to bits, he’s called a drunkard.'
• Osborne: 'I know. There’s nothing worse than dirt in your tea.'
• Hardy: 'I hope you get better luck than I did with my last officer. He got lumbago the first night and went home. Now he’s got a job lecturing young officers on Life in the Front Line.'
• Osborne: 'It rather reminds you of bear-baiting — or cock-fighting — to sit and watch a boy drink himself unconscious.'
• Hardy: 'You keep yourself in by hanging your arms and legs over the sides. Mustn’t hang your legs too low, or the rats gnaw your boots.'
• Hardy: 'You don’t know him as I do; I love that fellow. I’d go to hell with him.'
• Osborne: 'You thought it was fighting all the time?'
• Hardy: 'He was skipper of Rugger at Barford, and kept wicket for the eleven. A jolly good bat, too.'
• Osborne: 'Last time he was on leave he came down to the school; he’d just got his M.C. and been made a captain. He looked splendid! It — sort of— made me feel Keen to get out here'
• Osborne: 'You must always think of it like that if you can. Think of it all as — as romantic. It helps.'
• Raleigh: 'How frightfully quiet it is! I thought there would be an awful row here — all the time. Osborne: Most people think that.'
• Hardy: 'Oh, I know old Dennis’s temper! I remember once at school he caught some chaps in a study with a bottle of whiskey. Lord! The roof nearly blew off. He gave them a dozen each with a cricket stump.'
• Osborne: 'He’s a long way the best company commander we’ve got.'
• Trotter: 'I mean—after all—war’s bad enough with pepper—(noisy sip)—but war without pepper—it’s—bloomin’ awful!'
• Stanhope: 'There were only two ways of breaking the strain. One was pretending I was ill—and going home; the other was this'
• Stanhope: 'Hero-worship be damned! Censorship! I censor his letters—cross out all he says about me'
• When something happens, it happens quickly

  Then we just start waiting again
• Trotter: 'Isn’t it lovely? Makes you feel sort of young and hopeful. I was up in that old trench under the brick wall just now, and damned if a bloomin’ little bird didn’t start singing! Didn’t ’arf sound funny. Sign of spring, I s’pose… Funny about that bird. Made me feel quite braced up. Sort of made me think about my garden of an evening—walking round in me slippers after supper, smoking me pipe'
• Stanhope: 'He thinks I’m in such a state I want a rest, is that it? There’s not a man left who was here when I came. That boy’s a hero-worshipper. I’m three years older than he is. You know what that means at school. I was skipper of Rugger and all that sort of thing. It doesn’t sound much to a man out here—but it does at school with a kid of fourteen'
• Despite his stars of rank, he is no more than a boy; tall, slimly built, but broad-shouldered. His dark hair is carefully brushed; his uniform, though old and war-stained, is well cut and cared for. He is good-looking, rather from attractive features than the healthy good looks of Raleigh. Although tanned by months in the open air, there is a pallor under his skin and dark shadows under his eyes
• Stanhope: 'Another little worm trying to wriggle home. He’s decided to go home and spend the rest of the war in comfortable nerve hospitals. Well, he’s mistaken. I let Warren get away like that, but no more. No man of mine’s going sick before the attack. They’re going to take an equal chance—together'
• Amazing trenchTurning and twisting for miles, over a sort of plain
• Small boys at school generally have their heroes

  Stanhope: Yes. Small boys at school do…She doesn’t know that if I went up those steps into the front line—without being doped with whiskey—I’d go mad with fright
• Stanhope: 'How did you get here?'
• I’m going to draw a hundred and forty-four little circles on a bit of paper, and every hour I’m going to black one in; that’ll make the time go all right
• Stanhope: 'It was all right at first. When I went home on leave after six months it was jolly fine to feel I’d done a little to make her pleased. It was after I came back here—in that awful affair on Vimy Ridge. I knew I’d go mad if I didn’t break the strain. I couldn’t bear being fully conscious all the time—you’ve felt that, Uncle, haven’t you?'