What is the main point of the book “all quiet on the western front”

When first i engaged in this work, i resolved to leave neither words nor things unexamined, and myself with a prospect of the hours which i should revel away in feasts of literature . . –preface to a dictionary of the english language, samuel johnson what is the connotation of the word revel in this passage?

How does the dialogue between henry and his friends? “californians tale”

Laugh and be merry, remember, better the world with a song,    better the world with a blow in the teeth of a wrong.    laugh, for the time is brief, a thread the length of a span.    laugh and be proud to belong to the old proud pageant of man. (laugh and be merry/john masefield/public domain) which of these is the main idea of the poem?