"I cannot see that we are enjoying many privileges at present--unless it
be the privilege to lie rather than be lied to. And when our enemies do
win we shall be pried out, root and branch. So, why not save our skins
at all events? I do not mean mine, of course--nor, for that matter, am I
thinking of our class; but of the hundreds of thousands of our dear
young men who might be spared--"

"Better die and have done with it. And there is always hope--"

"Hope?"

"Oh--in the separate peace, the ultimate submersible, some new
invention--the miracle that has come to the rescue more than once in
history. There are times when my faith in the destiny of Germany to
dominate the world is so great that I cannot believe it possible for
her to fail--in spite of everything, everything! And everything is
against us! I never realized it until I lay there in the hospital. I was
too busy before, and that was my first serious wound. Oh, God! what
fools we were. What rotten diplomacy. Even I despised the United States;
but as I lay there in Berlin their irresistible almighty power seemed to
pass before me in a procession that nearly destroyed my reason. I knew
the country well enough, but I would not see."

"They are a very soft-hearted people and would let us down agreeably if
the Social-Democrats overturned the House of Hohenzollern and stretched
out the imploring hand of a young Republic--"

"No! No! A thousand times rather die to the last man than be beaten
within. That would be the one insupportable humiliation. _Canaille!_" He