All Quiet on the Western Front
"From the earth, from the air, sustaining forces pour into us- mostly from the earth. To no man does the earth mean so much to as the soldier. When he presses himself upon her long and powerfullly, when he buries his face and limbs deep in her from the fear of death by shellfire, then she is his only friend, his brother, his mother; he stifles his terror and his cries in her silence and her security; she shelters him and releases him for ten seconds to live, to run, ten seconds of life; recieves him again and often forever.
Earth!- Earth!- Earth!
Earth with thy folds, and hollows, and holes, into which a man may fling himself and crouch down. In the spasm of terror, under the hailing of annihilation, in the bellowing death of the explosions, O Earth, thou grantest us the great resisting surge of new-won life. Our being, almost utterly carried away by the storm, streams back through our hands through thee, and we, they redeemed ones, bury ourselves in thee, and through the long minutes in a mute agony of hope bite into thee with our lips!"
"Might fine fireworks if they weren't so dangerous."
Eric Maria Remarque
Earth!- Earth!- Earth!
Earth with thy folds, and hollows, and holes, into which a man may fling himself and crouch down. In the spasm of terror, under the hailing of annihilation, in the bellowing death of the explosions, O Earth, thou grantest us the great resisting surge of new-won life. Our being, almost utterly carried away by the storm, streams back through our hands through thee, and we, they redeemed ones, bury ourselves in thee, and through the long minutes in a mute agony of hope bite into thee with our lips!"
"Might fine fireworks if they weren't so dangerous."
Eric Maria Remarque