“Do you guys ever think about how Hitler has affected the whole world? That just one man did all this? I mean, what if he had been a good man, instead?”
“So what you gonna do?”“Push a stick into the beehive and rustle up some bees. The Larousses are hosting a party today. I think we should avail ourselves of their hospitality.”“We got an invite?”“Has not having one ever stopped us before?”“No, but sometimes I just like to be invited to shit, you know what I’m sayin’, instead of havin’ to bust in, get threatened, irritate the nice white folks, put the fear of the black man on them.”He paused, seemed to think for a while about what he had just said, then brightened.“Sounds good, doesn’t it?” I said.“Real good,” he agreed.”
“We are fighting the greatest war the world has ever seen, and our likely future is death and ruins, and you are thinking about a women you love, instead of making battle plans. If this is what love can do to a man, perhaps you were better off without it. He smiled to himself. I do not believe that, he thought.”
“I wanted a guy who made my stomach flutter, who was polite and respectful to everyone because he didn't think of anybody as beneath him, a man who did good things not because of what he’d gain but simply because it was the right thing to do. I wanted someone that cared about the injustices of the world and tried to help even if the issue didn't affect his life.”
“How long had he been doing what was necessary instead of what was right? In a fair world they would be one and the same.”
“The human race is unimportant. It is the self that must not be betrayed.""I suppose one could say that Hitler didn't betray his self.""You are right. He did not. But millions of Germans did betray their selves. That was the tragedy. Not that one man had the courage to be evil. But that millions had not the courage to be good.”