“Next to her, I felt myself a man made wise by life and science, strong and bold. But secretly, without even admitting it to myself, I was glad she had promised to pray for me. You never know, it might come in handy....”

“And carrying a bag of chow. Grigory Ivanych received every one of them himself and asked: You, now, who might you be, who's your dad, why do you want to go to war? And every time he asked the last question: You believe in God? And if the guy says I do, then Grigory Ivanych would say: Then you're no good for me. Even if the guy was a hero to look at, had a horse and a weapon, he didn't take him. Go, he would say, to someone else. Because here's the way it is with me: I'm a good judge of people, and when I know a man, I know what to expect from him, what to ask. But if he has God, then I can't know what God'll order him to do. In my division there can only be one god—the commander."

“Therefore, even though I did become a sincere adherent of Stalin, I still did not turn into a full-fledged little Stalin—that is to say, a funky completely without principle, without conscience, ready to perform any base deed. And never could I believe in my heart or in my mind that we had more enemies than friends, that our task was not to convince ideological opponents but to kill them. For this saving grace, which kept me from reaching the final stage of spiritual and moral degradation, I am indebted to many good people, many good books, many beneficial forcesincluding my childish enthusiasm for Esperanto.” page 120

“The pain of injured nationalist feelings was reborn as a hatred for other ethnic groups, for everyone who spoke the language of the oppressors, for everyone related to the "hereditary enemies, our neighbors."’

“finally it became clear that the Germans were by no means vicious. When our fat Sanya took a spill on the slippery sidewalk and began to bawl, a German soldier who was passing by said ‘Whoops’ cheerfully, lifted him up, snapped his fingers cleverly and whistled so loudly that Sanya immediately shut up. And I was convinced that the Germans were good people who were not only for the Tsar, but for all of us.” … But I, from the age of ten, was convinced that the Germans were the most cultured people in the world and the best friends of Russia, and the German monarchy was the fairest form of government.”