Absolutes Quote by Tim O'Brien

“There is no rectitude whatsoever. There is no virtue. As a first rule of thumb, therefore, you can tell a true war story by…

— Tim O'Brien

“You can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil.”

— Tim O'Brien

“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men…

— Tim O'Brien

[Y]ou possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, crossgrained nature and the language of the market-place. In you…

— Aristophanes

“It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty... Like a killer forest fire, like cancer…

— Tim O'Brien

“War is an unbelievable potpourri of deep fear, exhilaration, dull, monotonous, dirty living, strange heroics, and complete cowardice, all intermingled to form a way…

— Robert E. Merriam

“War is like art. It paints a picture mixed with lies and truths in order to help one find something absolute. It brings out…

— Lionel Suggs

“Though it was undeclared, there was a new world war being waged, where fundamental decency and respect for human rights were under assault by…

— James Rollins

War is, after all, the universal perversion ... war stories, the pornography of war.

— John Rae

“One intriguing way to enter into the battle between good and evil, life and death, sanity and madness, is in the pages of fiction.”

— Robert Poe

“War as a moral metaphor is limited, limiting, and dangerous. By reducing the choices of action to “a war against” whatever-it-is, you divide the…

— Ursula K. Le Guin

“The psychological components of war have not gone away—dominance, vengeance, callousness, tribalism, groupthink, self-deception”

— Steven Pinker