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Knowledge, of course, is always imperfect, but it seemed to me that when a nation goes to war it must have reasonable confidence in the justice and imperative of its cause. You can't fix your mistakes. Once people are dead, you can't make them undead.

— Tim O'Brien The Things They Carried (1990)

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More quotes by Tim O'Brien

They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the power of the things they carried.

The Things They Carried (1990)

To generalize about war is like generalizing about peace. Almost everything is true. Almost nothing is true.

The Things They Carried (1990)

They carried the soldier's greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to.

The Things They Carried (1990)

You were a treasonous pussy if you had second thoughts about killing and dying for plain and simple reasons.

The Things They Carried (1990)

They were afraid of dying but even more afraid to show it.

The Things They Carried (1990)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Tim O'Brien (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.