Dissillusionment Quotes

“Something in me died at Peleliu. Perhaps it was the childish innocence that accepted as faith the claim that Man is basically good. Possibly I lost faith that politicians in high places, who do not have to endure war's savagery, will ever stop blundering and sending others to endure it.”
― Eugene B. Sledge

“...sorrow binds us - I will always cherish you - my only disillusionment is unspoken words ...”
― John Geddes, A Familiar Rain

“What has Kantorek [their teacher] written to you?' Muller asks him [Kropp].

He laughs. 'We are the Iron Youth.'

We all three smile bitterly . . .

Yes, that's what they think, these hundred thousand Kantoreks! Iron Youth! Youth! We are none of us more than twenty years old. But young? Youth? That is long ago. We are old folk.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front

“Fame. Everyone dreams of fame. You long to live forever, to gain the power of light. But fame is fickle. One minute you're a young man alone in the universe; the next you're traveling beyond the stars and making grand discoveries; the next you're being ridiculed for proposing it might be possible to travel beyond the boundaries of time and causality and exist in other dimensions; the next you're being defrocked and imprisoned for cosmic heresy; the next you're being exonerated from execution and sent ironically, on a mission of certain death - all because some queen had a dream that a starfish spoke to her. It's all typical, really.”
― Matt Suddain, Theatre of the Gods

“Filthy-minded old bastard,' he muttered viciously under his breath. No wonder the world such a rotten place, rotten and filthy and cheap and smelly. Where is that place they talk of and paint nice pictures of and described in all the homey magazines? Where is that place with the clean, white cottages surrounding the new, red brick church with the clean, white steeple, were the families all have two children, one boy and one girl, and a shiny new car in the garage and a dog and a cat and life is like living in the land of the happily-ever-after? Surely it must be around here someplace, someplace in America. Or is it just that it's not for me? Maybe I dealt myself out, but what about that young kid on Burnside who was in the army and found it wasn't enough so that he has to keep proving to everyone who comes in for a cup of coffee that he was fighting for his country like the button on his shirt says he did because the army didn't do anything about his face to make him look more American? And what about the poor niggers on Jackson Street who can't find anything better to do than spit on the sidewalk and show me the way to Tokyo? They're on the outside looking in, just like that kid and just like me and just like everybody else I’ve ever seen or known. Even Mr. Carrick. Why isn't he in? Why is he on the outside squandering his goodness on outcasts like me? Maybe the answer is that there is no in. Maybe the whole damn country is pushing and shoving and screaming to get into some place that doesn't exist, because they don't know that the outside could be the inside if only they would stop all this pushing and shoving and screaming, and they haven't got enough sense to realise that. That makes sense. I've got the answer all figured out, simple and neat, and sensible.”
― John Okada, No-No Boy