Tag: Ernie Pyle

But to the fighting soldier that phase of the war is behind. It was left behind after his first battle. His blood is up. He is fighting for his life, and killing now for him is as much a profession as writing is for me.

Ernie Pyle

If you go long enough without a bath, even the fleas will let you alone.  …   For a lifetime I had bathed with becoming regularity, and thought the world would come to an end unless I changed my socks every day. But in Africa I sometimes went without a bath for two months, and I went two weeks at a time without even changing my socks. Oddly enough, it didn’t seem to make much difference.

Ernie Pyle

One of the parodoxes of war is that those in the rear want to get up into the fight, while those in the lines want to get out.

Ernie Pyle

I try not to take any foolish chances, but there’s just no way to play it completely safe and still do your job.

Ernie Pyle

For me war has become a flat, black depression without highlights, a revulsion of the mind and an exhaustion of the spirit.

Ernie Pyle

War makes strange giant creatures out of us little routine men who inhabit the earth.

Ernie Pyle

I’ve been immersed in it too long. My spirit is wobbly and my mind is confused. The hurt has become too great.

Ernie Pyle

There is no sense in the struggle, but there is no choice but to struggle.

Ernie Pyle

Thoughts are wonderful things, that they can bring two people, so far apart, into harmony and understanding for even a little while.

Ernie Pyle

Marines have a cynical approach to war. They believe in three things; liberty, payday and that when two Marines are together in a fight, one is being wasted. Being a minority group militarily, they are proud and sensitive in their dealings with other military organizations. A Marine’s concept of a perfect battle is to have other Marines on the right and left flanks, Marine aircraft overhead and Marine artillery and naval gunfire backing them up.

Ernie Pyle