Echoes Across Time

What War Costs That No One Counts

The literature of war's aftermath: Vera Brittain, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Simone Weil, Osip Mandelstam, Ingeborg Bachmann — the grief that doesn't fit any official narrative, the losses too personal to be named in history.

36 total quotes

“
If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

—Mother TeresaCatholic Nun & Founder

Late Modern ERA • South Asia

“
Africa is a continent that consumes its children.

—Nuruddin FarahNovelist

Late Modern ERA • East Africa

“
Another dawn, another darkness.

—Faiz Ahmad FaizScholar & Thinker

Early Modern ERA • South Asia

“
The state is broken; mountains and rivers remain.

—Du FuPoet & Sage

Medieval ERA • East Asia

“
My husband's tongue is bitter with the white man's salt.

—Okot p'BitekPoet & Anthropologist

Post-War ERA • East Africa

“
Summer grasses: all that remains of warriors' dreams.

—Matsuo BashoPoet

Renaissance ERA • East Asia

“
Mexico has a pyramid at its center, and it is made of skulls.

—Carlos FuentesNovelist & Diplomat

Post-War ERA • Latin America

“
Life is a battle between hostile elements.

—August StrindbergPlaywright, Novelist & Painter

Industrial Age ERA • Nordic

“
I was born in Budapest in 1929 and the twentieth century immediately showed me its face.

—Imre KertészNovelist

Contemporary ERA • Eastern Europe

“
War does not end with the ceasefire.

—Aminatta FornaAuthor

Digital Age ERA • West Africa

“
What we call peace is nothing but a temporary truce.

—Ingeborg BachmannPoet & Writer

Post-War ERA • Western Europe

“
The old world collapsed, and in its place arose a wild, new, and beautiful chaos.

—Boris PilnyakNovelist

Early Modern ERA • Eastern Europe

“
The hands that ache from toil and hunger / The hands that know no rest.

—Faiz Ahmad FaizScholar & Thinker

Post-War ERA • South Asia

“
I was born in the night of January second to third, 1891.

—Osip MandelstamPoet

Early Modern ERA • Eastern Europe

“
Where now are cities, walls, and tower's pride?

—Andreas GryphiusPoet & Playwright

Renaissance ERA • Western Europe

“
O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done.

—Walt WhitmanPoet & Essayist

Industrial Age ERA • North America

“
Exile is a wound that never heals, only changes its shape.

—Marjorie AgosínPoet & Activist

Late Modern ERA • Latin America

“
History is the autobiography of a madman.

—Alexander HerzenThinker, Writer & Revolutionary

Industrial Age ERA • Eastern Europe

“
If an epitaph were to be written on the human race, it might well be: 'It meant well.'

—Thomas HardyNovelist & Poet

Industrial Age ERA • Western Europe

“
In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons.

—HerodotusHistorian

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

Loading more...