All Quiet on the Western Front

So I speak to him and say to him: "Comrade, I did not want to kill you." If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too. But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response.

abstraction = a concept not associated with any specific instance

(editor's note:  The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.)

The nights become quiet and the hunt for copper driving-bands and the silken parachutes of the French star-shells begins. Why the driving-bands are so desirable no one knows exactly. The collectors merely assert that they are valuable.†

assert = say (that something is true)

Albert cleans his nails with a knife. We are surprised at this delicacy.

delicacy = care (befitting a gentleman more than a soldier of the trenches)

They used to have intrigues among themselves, as always happens, and it would often come to blows and knives.†

intrigues = secret schemes or plots

...life is simply one continual watch against the menace of death;—it has transformed us into unthinking animals in order to give us the weapon of instinct—it has reinforced us with dullness, so that we do not go to pieces before the horror, which would overwhelm us if we had clear, conscious thought—it has awakened in us the sense of comradeship, so that we escape the abyss of solitude—it has lent us the indifference of wild creatures, so that in spite of all, we perceive the positive in every moment,

perceive = view in a certain way to see

When she perceives Franz's trouble she begins to bustle, and says: "Why did not someone say I was wanted?"

perceives = becomes aware of

...in spite of all, we perceive the positive in every moment, and store it up as a reserve against the onslaught of nothingness.†

positive = good or beneficial

In the evening it grows sultry and the heat rises from the earth.

sultry = hot and humid

From the earth, from the air, sustaining forces pour into us—mostly from the earth. To no man does the earth mean so much as to the soldier. When he presses himself down upon her long and powerfully, when he buries his face and his limbs deep in her from the fear of death by shell-fire, then she is his only friend, his brother, his mother;

sustaining = supporting