17 quotes
We press the enemy backward with memories, with the power of history, with scenes of sense and order.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
“The rules would seem to indicate,” I told him, “that if you start a war you really can’t complain when people drop bombs on you.”
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
I now knew what it was, but just because you can name a thing does not mean you understand it.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
The fires of history burn hot and long, but memories of fires do not burn long enough.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
Either ghosts are a metaphor for history, or history is a metaphor for ghosts.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
Courage, combined with stupidity, does not make successful soldiers.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
I needed this the way guys in trenches need head lice.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
The crotch and the brain are the engines of history.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
You can only picture the future based on what you know about the past. If history dies the future can only be hideous.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
Some remnant of battle must remain, something halting an advance. The ghost of a ghost may be more than a memory. It may be a piece of history that refuses to be rewritten.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
We have the power of memory. We have the memory of order, and we still have voices. When memory dies, civilization dies.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
“Flags are symbols. Words are symbols. Steeples are symbols. Red lights in front of cathouses are symbols. The world don’t know it, but the world lives by symbols, some good, some as bad as flags.”
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
I saw old-fashioned cities, quiet streets, small shops, colorful flags and ornaments and decorations—life before machine guns, before communism and capitalism and the ambitions of generals.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
Absolute Evil exists. As kids we geriatrics learned all about it, and no damn social worker had better come along and blame “evil” on “conditions.” Evil is a force in the universe, a force using any weakness it finds to do its dirt; and with Evil, Hell is just a sideline.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
“I almost don’t believe in ghosts.”
She was stating part of the problem. If ghosts are a metaphor for history, then belief is a leap into reality. If history is a metaphor for ghosts, matters get really serious.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
The whole business lay ringed with mystery, with improbabilities, but also with certainty of total destruction if we failed. There might be total destruction if we succeeded, but that was someone else’s problem. We could only set the standard, write our last will and testament through action, and hope someone could still read deeply enough to raise arms against the encroaching night.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)
The reason to understand history is not to avoid the mistakes of history—because some fool will make those mistakes for you. Some maniac will start a war, and some other maniac will drop an atom bomb, and you'll be the poor bastard who gets to drop the bomb or be hit by it.
No, you understand history so you can understand yourself.
Kilroy Was Here (1996)