World War I, also known as the Great War, raged from 1914 to 1918 and reshaped the world in ways still felt today. With over 16 million lives lost, the war left behind a legacy of tragedy, heroism, and reflection. From soldiers in the trenches to leaders and poets, voices from WWI remind us of the horrors of war and the resilience of the human spirit.
- “If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.” – Rupert Brooke
- “It was the end of the world, and we did not know it.” – Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
- “You will not understand about the trenches unless you have been there.” – Anonymous soldier
- “Shells will not fall here again. They never strike twice in the same place.” – Common soldier’s superstition
- “I died in hell – They called it Passchendaele.” – Siegfried Sassoon
- “The war to end all wars.” – H.G. Wells (referring to WWI)
- “War is the slaughter of human beings, temporarily regarded as enemies, on as large a scale as possible.” – Jeanette Rankin
- “It is not only the living who are killed in war.” – Isaac Rosenberg
- “The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” – Sir Edward Grey
- “Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.” – Ernest Hemingway
- “This war, like the next war, is a war to end war.” – David Lloyd George
- “In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row.” – John McCrae
- “They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.” – Laurence Binyon
- “The generals sat, and the map they made / Was just a game for them to play.” – Anonymous
- “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.” – G.K. Chesterton
- “I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “We are the dead. Short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow.” – John McCrae, In Flanders Fields
- “My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.” – Wilfred Owen
- “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks…” – From Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
- “The war was decided in the minds and spirits of men.” – Marshal Ferdinand Foch
- “The world must be made safe for democracy.” – Woodrow Wilson
- “To fight, yes—but not to hate.” – Alvin C. York
- “Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it.” – Woodrow Wilson
- “The war exacted a terrible price, yet we fought with honor and returned with purpose.” – Unknown WWI veteran
- “There were no winners, only survivors.”
- “Trenches swallowed the youth of a generation.”
- “They marched in with dreams. They left with silence.”
- “History remembers the battles. Soldiers remember the screams.”
- “We said never again — but forgot too soon.”
- “The poppies still grow where the brave once stood.”
World War I changed the course of history. The pain, bravery, and lessons from those four years echo in the quotes left behind in poems, speeches, letters, and silent graveyards. These quotes remind us not only of the horrors of war but also of the human capacity to endure, to remember, and to hope.
“Lest we forget.”
