A great war leaves the country with three armies — an army of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.

This saying circulates in English as a “German proverb,” reflecting a Central European folk-wisdom tradition shaped by the long experience of continental warfare. Rather than pointing to a single identifiable speaker or occasion, it functions as a postwar observation: after major conflicts, societies must contend not only with demobilized soldiers but with lasting social consequences—disabled veterans, bereaved families, and a rise in opportunistic crime and corruption amid disruption and scarcity. The proverb’s force comes from its compression of these recurring aftermaths into a grim inventory, suggesting it was preserved and repeated as a cautionary maxim about what war leaves behind at home.

The proverb argues that war’s true legacy is not only territorial change or political victory but three enduring social “armies” at home. The “army of cripples” points to lifelong disability and the burden of care; the “army of mourners” to grief that reshapes families and communities; and the “army of thieves” to the moral and economic breakdown that can follow mass violence—scarcity, trauma, demobilization, and weakened institutions. By calling these groups “armies,” the saying suggests they are numerous, organized by circumstance, and as consequential as any military force. It functions as an anti-romantic corrective to heroic war narratives, emphasizing long-term human and civic costs.