Ernest Hemingway Quotes
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Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be.
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Things may not be immediately discernible in what a man writes, and in this sometimes he is fortunate; but eventually they are quite clear and by these and the degree of alchemy that he possesses he will endure or be forgotten.
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For what are we born if not to aid one another?
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When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.
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The great artist when he comes, uses everything that has been discovered or known about his art up to that point, being able to accept or reject in a time so short it seems that the knowledge was born with him, rather than that he takes instantly what it takes the ordinary man a lifetime to know, and then the great artist goes beyond what has been done or known and makes something of his own.
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Write the best story that you can and write it as straight as you can.
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Retirement is the ugliest word in the language.
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All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer.
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Those who say they want to be writers, and aren’t writing, don’t.
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Fish," he said softly, aloud, "I'll stay with you until I am dead.
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Ezra was right half the time, and when he was wrong, he was so wrong you were never in any doubt about it.
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There are only two places in the world where we can live happy: at home and in Paris.
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Most people never listen.
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Please tell me what can I do. There must be something I can do
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Fish," the old man said. "Fish, you are going to have to die anyway. Do you have to kill me too?
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You write a book like that you're fond of over the years, then you see that happen to it, it's like pissing in your father's beer.
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When I had finished the book I knew that no matter what Scott did, nor how he behaved, I must know it was like a sickness and be of any help I could to him and try to be a good friend. He had many good, good friends, more than anyone I knew. But I enlisted as one more, whether I could be of any use to him or not. If he could write a book as fine as The Great Gatsby I was sure that he could write an even better one. I did not know Zelda yet, and so I did not know the terrible odds that were against him. But we were to find them out soon enough.
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Something, or something awful or something wonderful was certain to happen on every day in this part of Africa.
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Take a good rest, small bird," he said. "Then go in and take your chance like any man or bird or fish.
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A writer can be compared to a well. There are as many kinds of wells as there are writers. The important thing is to have good water in the well, and it is better to take a regular amount out than to pump the well dry and wait for it to refill.
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Actually if a writer needs a dictionary he should not write. He should have read the dictionary at least three times from beginning to end and then have loaned it to someone who needs it. There are only certain words which are valid and similes (bring me my dictionary) are like defective ammunition (the lowest thing I can think of at this time).
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You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason.
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Failure and well-disguised cowardice are more human and more beloved.
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Creation's probably overrated. After all, God made the world in only six days and rested on the seventh.