Siegfried Sassoon

Man, it seemed, had been created to jab the life out of Germans.

I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers.

I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it.

Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land, drawing no dividend from time's tomorrows.

Soldiers are citizens of deaths grey land drawing no dividend from times tomorrows.

I believe that the purpose for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.

Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin they think of firelit homes, clean beds, and wives.

I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust.

In me the tiger sniffs the rose.

I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.