How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from All Quiet on the Western Front.
Quote #4
KEMMERICK: Oh, I know what you mean! I know! I know now! They've cut my leg off. Why didn't they tell me? Why didn't they tell me?
PAUL: Franz! Franz!
KEMMERICK: …they tell me. Now I can't walk anymore!
PAUL: Franz, you must be thankful that you've come off with only that.
KEMMERICK: I wanted to be a forester once.
Kemmerick sacrifices his dreams for the war effort. Far from being ecstatic at dying for his country—as Kantorek's speech suggested—we see a young man broken and disillusioned moments before his death.
Quote #5
MUELLER: I've got it, Kat. Listen, "The sum of an arithmetic series is S = A + L XN over 2." Interesting, isn't it?
KAT: What do you want to learn that stuff for? One day you'll stop a bullet and it'll all be wasted.
MUELLER: I get a lot of fun out of it.
Kat points out a great hypocrisy in Kantorek's speech from earlier. Joining the army isn't providing Mueller with experience. Rather, any skills he wishes to foster are wasted if they won't help him stop a bullet for his country. And Kat's prediction proves true. Mueller does stop a bullet for his country later and his knowledge is wasted.
Quote #6
WESTHUS: We passed a cherry tree and when he saw it, he sort of went crazy. I could hardly drag him away.
DETERING: It was beautiful. I have a big orchard with cherry trees at home. And when they're in full blossom, from the hayloft it looks like one single sheet. So white.
ALBERT: Perhaps you can get leave soon.
But it's not just about young men sacrificing their dreams. Detering achieved his dream of having a wife and a farm, and he set that dream aside to fight in the war.