Ernest Hemingway Quotes
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I was as afraid as the next man in my time and maybe more so. But with the years, fear had come to be regarded as a form of stupidity to be classed with overdrafts, acquiring a venereal disease or eating candies. Fear is a child's vice and while I loved to feel it approach, as one does with any vice, it was not for grown men and the only thing to be afraid of was the presence of true and imminent danger in a form that you should be aware of and not be a fool if you were responsible for others.
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The first and final thing you have to do in this world is to last it and not be smashed by it.
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Being against evil doesn't make you good. Tonight I was against it and then I was evil myself. I could feel it coming just like a tide... I just want to destroy them. But when you start taking pleasure in it you are awfully close to the thing you're fighting.
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I am one of those who like to stay late at the cafe," the older waiter said. "With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need a light for the night." "I want to go home and into bed." "We are of two different kinds," the older waiter said. He was now dressed to go home. "It is not only a question of youth and confidence although those things are very beautiful. Each night. I am reluctant to close up because there may be someone who needs the cafe.
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I did not understand them but they did not have any mystery, and when I understood them they meant nothing to me. I was sorry about this but there was nothing I could do about it.
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When you have a child, the world has a hostage.
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Religion is the opium of the poor.
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Before we take to the sea, we walk on land. . . Before we create, we must understand. . .
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I read my own books sometimes to cheer me when it is hard to write, and then I remember that it was always difficult, and how nearly impossible it was sometimes.
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I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars.
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A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.
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The circus is the only fun you can buy that is good for you.
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The thing is to become a master and in your old age to acquire the courage to do what children did when they knew nothing.
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I would like to take the great DiMaggio fishing," the old man said. "They say his father was a fisherman. Maybe he was as poor as we are and would understand.
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Look at things and listen and feel.
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Don't you drink? I notice you speak slightingly of the bottle. I have drunk since I was fifteen and few things have given me more pleasure.
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No one you love is ever truly lost.
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Intelligence is so damn rare and the people who have it often have such a bad time with it that they get bitter or propagandistic and then it's not much use.
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Read anything I write for the pleasure of reading it. Whatever else you find will be the measure of what you brought to the reading.
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An aggressive war is the great crime against everything good in the world. A defensive war, which must necessarily turn to aggressive at the earliest moment, is the necessary great counter-crime. But never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry and ask the dead.
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When I saw her I was in love with her. Everything turned over inside of me. She looked toward the door, saw there was no one, then she sat on the side of the bed and leaned over and kissed me.
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If my Valentine you won't be, I'll hang myself on your Christmas tree.
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People who write fiction, if they had not taken it up, might have become very successful liars.
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The only kind of writing is rewriting.