History Quotes / DespairSpeech

'''John Rambo:''' ''[[SuddenlyShouting Nothing is over!]]'' Nothing! You just don't turn it off! It wasn't [[TheVietnamVet my war]]! You asked me, I didn't ask you! And [[IDidWhatIHadToDo I did what I had to do to win!]] But somebody wouldn't let us win! Then I come back to the world, and I see all those maggots at the airport protesting me, spitting, calling me a baby killer and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me, huh? Who are they, unless they've been me and been there, and know what the hell they're yelling about?\\

'''Rambo:''' For you! For me, civilian life is nothing! In the field, [[BandOfBrothers we had a code of honor]]. You watch my back, I watch yours. Back here, there's nothing.\\

'''Rambo:''' Back there I could fly a gunship. I could drive a tank. I was in charge of million dollar equipment! Back here I can't even hold a job ''parking cars!'' Ah! ''<breaks down crying>'' Oh God... Jesus... oh my God... where is everybody? God... I had a friend. Who was Danforth. I had all these guys, man. Back there, I had all these guys who were my friends. Back here there's nothing. Remember Danforth? He wore this black headband and I took one of those magic markers and I said to Feron, "hey, mail us to UsefulNotes/LasVegas" cause we were always talkin' about Vegas, and this fucking car. This, uh, [[CoolCar red '58 Chevy convertible]], he was talkin' about this car, he said we were gonna cruise 'til the tires fall off. ''<beat>'' We were in this bar in Saigon, and this kid comes up, this kid carrying a shoe shine box, and he says "shine please, shine." I said no, and he kept asking, yeah, and Joey said "yeah," and I went to get a couple beers and the ki- the box was wired, and he opened up the box, fucking blew his body all over the place. And he's laying there and he's fucking screaming, there's pieces of him all over me, just like ''<throws off his bandolier>'' like this, and I'm trying to pull him off, you know? And- ''my friend, it's all over me!'' It's got blood and everything, and I'm trying to hold him together, I put him together, his fucking insides keep coming out! ''And nobody would help!'' No one would help me. He saying "please, I wanna go home, I wanna go home!" He keeps calling my name! "I wanna go home Johnny, I wanna drive my Chevy!" I said "well, why? [[AnArmAndALeg I can't find your fucking legs!]] I can't find you legs!" [[ShellShockedVeteran I can't get it out of my head.]] I fuck... ''<starts sobbing>'' I dream of seven years. Everyday I have this. And sometimes I wake up and I dunno where I am. I don't talk to anybody. Sometimes a day... almost a week... I can't put it out of my mind... fucking... I can't...

'''Pim:''' So what did you think, Desmond? I bet after the teacup, you don't wanna shoot yourself with that nasty revolver anymore. Do you feel any better?\\

'''Desmond:''' That's exactly it. Are the best parts of life really just finding momentary distractions to keep yourself busy, so you don't think about the harsh realities of life for a second? I can ride rollercoasters, make new friends, and spend time with my family all day long. But it doesn't change the fact that the sun is just gonna ''explode'' and all this was for nothing.

'''John Rambo:''' ''[[SuddenlyShouting Nothing is over!]]'' Nothing! You just don't turn it off! It wasn't [[TheVietnamVet my war]]! You asked me, I didn't ask you! And IDidWhatIHadToDo to win! But somebody wouldn't let us win! Then I come back to the world, and I see all those maggots at the airport protesting me, spitting, calling me a baby killer and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me, huh? Who are they, unless they've been me and been there, and know what the hell they're yelling about?\\

->''"Choose life" was a well-meaning slogan from a 1980s anti-drug campaign. And we used to add things to it. So I might say, for example, choose... Designer lingerie in the vain hope of kicking some life back into a dead relationship. Choose handbags. Choose high-heeled shoes. Cashmere and silk to make yourself feel what passes for happy. Choose an iPhone made in China by a woman who jumped out of a window, and stick it in the pocket of your jacket fresh from a South Asian firetrap. Choose Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and a thousand other ways to spew your bile across people you've never met. Choose updating your profile. Tell the world what you had for breakfast and hope that someone, somewhere cares. Choose looking up old flames, desperate to believe that you don't look as bad as they do. Choose live-blogging from your first wank to your last breath. Human interaction reduced to nothing more than data. Choose ten things you never knew about celebrities who'd had surgery. Choose screaming about abortion. Choose rape jokes, slut shaming, revenge porn, and an endless tide of depressing misogyny. Choose 9/11 never happened, and if it did, it was the Jews. Choose a zero-hour contract and a two-hour journey to work, and choose the same for your kids, only worse. And maybe tell yourself it's better that they never happened. And then sit back and smother the pain with an unknown dose of an unknown drug made in somebody's fucking kitchen. Choose unfulfilled promise and wishing you'd done it all differently. Choose never learning from your own mistakes. Choose watching history repeat itself. Choose the slow reconciliation towards what you can get rather than what you always hoped for: settle for less and keep a brave face on it. Choose disappointment and choose losing the ones you loved, and as they fall from view, a piece of you dies with them until you can see that one day in the future, piece by piece, they will all be gone, and there'll be nothing left of you to call alive or dead! Choose your future, Veronika. ''Choose life.

-->--''LightNovel/{{Durarara}}''