Erich Maria Remarque Famous Quotes – The Sigma Quotes

Who is Erich Maria Remarque?

German author Erich Maria Remarque wrote books. His ground-breaking book ‘Im Westen Nichts Neues’ which explores the First World War experience of the German troops, became an international bestseller, invented a new literary form, and was made into a movie in 1930. 

Born: 22 June 1898, Osnabrück, Germany

Died: 25 September 1970, Locarno, Switzerland

Erich Maria Remarque Quotes

Erich Maria Remarque's Quotes


“Life did not intend to

make us perfect. Whoever is perfect

belongs in a museum.”


“Modesty and conscientiousness

receive their reward only in novels.

In life they are exploited and

then shoved aside.”


“To forget is the secret

of eternal youth. One grows old

only through memory. There’s

much too little forgetting.”


“He who wants to hold on

to that is losing. Those who are

ready to let go with a smile –

are trying to keep him.”


“The more primitive

a man is the better he believes

himself to be.”


“The first person you think of

in the morning and the last person you

think at night is either the cause of

your happiness or the cause

of your pain.”


“Not always sorry for

the one who is wrong. Asking

forgiveness of the one who

values the relations.”


“I feel like I am among people

who are going to live forever. At least

that is how they act. They are so

obsessed with money that

they have forgotten

about life.”


“Anything you can settle with money is cheap.”


“The best way to lose

a woman was to show her a kind

of life that one could offer her

for only a few days.”


“You may turn into an

archangel, a fool, or a criminal

no one will see it. But when

a button is missing –

everyone sees that.”


“Never do anything

complicated when something simple

will serve as well. It’s one of the most

important secrets of living.”


“A man only begins

to be valued when he is

no longer there.”


“It is better to die when

I want to live, than to live before

you want to die.”


“What you can’t get always

seems better than what you have.

This includes the romance and

idiocy of human life.”


Erich Maria Remarque Quotes About Love

“If a woman belongs

to another man, she is five times

more desirable than the one

you can easily get.”


“Strange how complicated

we can make things just to avoid

showing what we feel!”


“Whatever happens to you,

never take it personally. Nothing

in this world is so important.”


“I stood next to her,

listened to her, laughed and thought

how terrible it is to love a woman

and be poor.”


“Only if you finally part with

a person, you begin to be truly interested

in everything that concerns him. This

is one of the paradoxes of love.”


“It is a mistake

to assume that all people have

the same ability to feel.”


“A man is always great

in his intentions. However, not in their

fulfillment. Therein lies his

fascination.”


“There is nothing more

tiring than to attend how a person

demonstrates his mind. In

particular, if there is

no mind.”


“A person can become close

to you in three days. And the one who

lives near you for years, may never

know what your favorite

color is.”


“Women do not need to

explain anything, you always

have to act with them.”


Erich Maria Remarque Quotes About Life

“A woman should not tell

a man that she loves him. Let her shining,

happy eyes speak about this. They are

more eloquent than any words.”


“Only a complete idiot

would argue with a woman and

appeal to her logic.”


“A lonely person cannot be abandoned.”


“Being in love – is when you want to get old

with someone.”


“It’s only terrible to have nothing to wait for.”


“It is very queer

that the unhappiness of the

world is so often brought

on by small men.”


“We are forlorn like

children, and experienced like old men,

we are crude and sorrowful and

superficial – we are lost.”


“Bombardment, barrage,

curtain-fire, mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns

hand-grenades – words, words, but they

hold the horror of the world.”


“It was a melancholy

secret that reality can arouse desires

but never satisfy them.”


“At school nobody ever taught us how to light a cigarette in a storm of rain,

no how a fire could be made with wet wood, nor that it is best to stick a bayonet in the

belly because there it doesn’t get

jammed, as it does in the ribs.”


“If a woman saves

money on herself, it means that it

makes men want to save

money on her!”


“Our knowledge of life is limited to death.”


“Everyone saves someone

at least once. Just as he kills someone

at least once. Even though he

may not know it.”


Erich Maria Remarque Best Quotes

“If a woman is angry

it means she is not only wrong,

but also she knows it.”


“No soldier outlives

a thousand chances. But every

soldier believes in chance and

trusts his luck.”


“A woman becomes

smarter when she is in love,

whereas a man loses

his mind.”


“What comfort there is in the skin of someone you love!”


“Good or ill, life is life,

you only realize that when you

have to risk it.”


“Who has many

women – knows women. Who has

one wife – knows love.”


“A friend standing

behind is worse than an enemy

standing in front.”


“If a man is not married at 30, it means that he has not been forced to get marrie yet. Men don’t get married because they

want to get married, but because

women want to get married.”


“The things men did or felt they had to do.”


“Love should not be polluted with friendship.”


“No one could become stranger than the

person you once loved.”


“Human beings are

a much worse poison than

schnapps or tobacco.”

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