It was just long enough after the Great War of 1914-18 for the young people who had been born in 1917 to be ready to go to college…or to another war, almost any old war that might be handy.
-- Narration (chapter 1 paragraph 2)

Importance: One of the major factors tat leads to the rise of Windrip’s dictatorship is the rise of militaristic fervor in the United States. Windrip is able to form a large personal army to keep order in the country and to instill a sense of purpose and discipline. This quotation at once describes and criticizes the warlike tendency in humans, and it is also quite prescient in that it was written between World War One and World War Two.

People will think they're electing him to create more economic security. Then watch the Terror! God knows there's been enough indication that we can have tyranny in America—the fix of the...
-- Doremus Jessup (chapter 2 paragraph 22)