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Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway Quotes

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Famous Ernest Hemingway Quotes

“I might say that what amateurs call a style is usually only the unavoidable awkwardnesses in first trying to make something that has not heretofore been made. Almost no new classics resemble other previous classics. At first people see only the awkwardness. Then they are not so perceptible. When they show so very awkwardly people think these awkwardnesses are the style and many copy them. This is regrettable.”

PeopleThinkingTryingFirstsMadeShowsMightStyleCopiesAwkwardness
Book:Conversations with Ernest Hemingway
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“It is a miserable thing to have people writing about your private life while you are alive. I have tried to stop it all that I could but there have been many abuses by people I trusted. You cannot stop trusting people in life but I have learned to be a little bit careful. The way to make people trust-worthy is to trust them.”

PeopleWayWritingLittlesHas BeensBitsAliveLittle BitAbuseCarefulWorthyMiserableTrustedI Have LearnedPrivate LifeTrust WorthyTrusting People
Book:Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917-1961
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“If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”

PeopleIfsWorldCoursesStrongBreakCourageSpecialThis WorldBrokenArmsBraveVery GoodGentleFarewell To ArmsBroken World
Book:A Farewell to Arms
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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.”

PeopleIfsGivingFeelsWritingBookTruthReadingLiteratureHappenedSorrowFinishedWeatherEcstasyRemorseGood BookWriting A BookGood WritingGood WritersBook WritingReading And WritingBad WritingReading Good BooksGood LiteratureGood Reading
Author:Ernest Hemingway
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“Happiness is often presented as being very dull but, he thought, lying awake, that is because dull people are sometimes very happy and intelligent people can and do go around making themselves and everyone else miserable. He had never found happiness dull. It always seemed more exciting than any other thing and capable of as great intensity as sorrow to those people who were capable of having it.”

PeopleSometimesLyingFoundSorrowCapableExcitingIntelligentMiserableAwakeDullIntensityVery HappyFound Happiness
Book:Islands in the stream
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“And another thing. Don’t ever kid yourself about loving some one. It is just that most people are not lucky enough ever to have it. You never had it before and now you have it. What you have with Maria, whether it lasts just through today and a part of tomorrow, or whether it lasts for a long life is the most important thing that can happen to a human being. There will always be people who say it does not exist because they cannot have it. But I tell you it is true and that you have it and that you are lucky even if you die tomorrow.”

PeopleIfsHumansLongDoeImportantEnoughHappensKidsTodayLastsLife IsDiesHuman BeingsTomorrowLuckyImportant ThingsLong LifeBeing ThereBefore And Now
Author:Ernest Hemingway
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“Madame, it is an old word and each one takes it new and wears it out himself. It is a word that fills with meaning as a bladder with air and the meaning goes out of it as quickly. It may be punctured as a bladder is punctured and patched and blown up again and if you have not had it does not exist for you. All people talk of it, but those who have had it are marked by it, and I would not wish to speak of it further since of all things it is the most ridiculous to talk of and only fools go through it many times.”

PeopleIfsLoveMayDoeSpeakWishAirFoolAll ThingsRidiculousConfusionTime LoveBladder
Book:The Hemingway Collection
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“In company with people of your own trade you ordinarily speak of other writers' books. The better the writers the less they will speak about what they have written themselves. Joyce was a very great writer and he would only explain what he was doing to jerks. Other writers that he respected were supposed to be able to know what he was doing by reading it.”

PeopleKnowsBookAbleReadingSpeakCompanyWrittenTradeSupposed To BeJerkGreat WritersJoyce
Book:Conversations with Ernest Hemingway
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“Everything is on such a clear financial basis in France. It is the simplest country to live in. No one makes things complicated by becoming your friend for any obscure reason. If you want people to like you you have only to spend a little money. I spent a little money and the waiter liked me. He appreciated my valuable qualities. He would be glad to see me, and would want me at his table. It would be a sincere liking because it would have a sound basis. I was back in France.”

PeopleIfsWantLittlesCountryReasonWould BeSoundQualityClearLike YouBecomingEconomicsBasesTablesFinancialValuableComplicatedGladFranceSincereWant MeObscureSimplestAppreciatedWaiterLittle Money
Book:The Sun Also Rises
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“It's enough for you to do it once for a few men to remember you. But if you do it year after year, then many people remember you and they tell it to their children, and their children and grandchildren remember and, if it concerns books, they can read them. And if it's good enough, it will last as long as there are human beings.”

PeopleIfsMenYearsHumansChildrenLongBookEnoughLastsRememberHuman BeingsHistoryConcernExcellenceBe GoodGood EnoughGrandchildrenRemember YouRemembers YouChildren And Grandchildren
Book:The Good Life According to Hemingway
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“The world breaks everyone or nearly everyone, of their childish illusions, assumptions and wishes, often painfully and afterwards due to the personal growth in practical experience, insight and the resulting wisdom many are strong at the broken places just like mended broken bones often are, and some people even have the great insight to be grateful for the purifying fire.”

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Author:Ernest Hemingway
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“When you go to war as a boy you have a great illusion of immortality. Other people get killed; not you. . . . Then when you are badly wounded the first time you lose that illusion and you know it can happen to you. After being severely wounded two weeks before my nineteenth birthday I had a bad time until I figured out that nothing could happen to me that had not happened to all men before me. Whatever I had to do men had always done. If they had done it then I could do it too and the best thing was not to worry about it.”

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Book:The Hemingway Collection
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