Quotes and anectdotes from the wise to the foolish, and the courageous to the drunk

Ernest Hemingway Novelist

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: United States
  • Born: Jul 21, 1899
  • Died: Jul 2, 1961

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works. Additional works, including three novels, four short story collections, and three non-fiction works, were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.

Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school he reported for a few months for The Kansas City Star, before leaving for the Italian front to enlist with the World War I ambulance drivers. In 1918, he was seriously wounded and returned home. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his novel A Farewell to Arms.

In 1921, he married Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives.

An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools. intelligence & time

Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war. war

I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know? life & love

All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time. life & time

What is moral is what you feel good after, and what is immoral is what you feel bad after. good

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them. best & trust

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. happiness

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure? failure

My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way. best

All good books have one thing in common - they are truer than if they had really happened. good

About morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after. good

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can. best, good & time

That terrible mood of depression of whether it's any good or not is what is known as The Artist's Reward. good

It's none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way. business

I don't like to write like God. It is only because you never do it, though, that the critics think you can't do it. God

Prose is architecture, not interior decoration, and the Baroque is over. architecture

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. war

In modern war... you will die like a dog for no good reason. good & war

Ezra was right half the time, and when he was wrong, he was so wrong you were never in any doubt about it. time

Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you. death

Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up. travel

That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best - make it all up - but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way. best

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places. strength

Cowardice... is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend functioning of the imagination. imagination

If you have a success you have it for the wrong reasons. If you become popular it is always because of the worst aspects of your work. success & work

Never go on trips with anyone you do not love. love & travel

For a war to be just three conditions are necessary - public authority, just cause, right motive. war

Fear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth. death & fear

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen. great & learning

A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book. funny

I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after. good

The game of golf would lose a great deal if croquet mallets and billiard cues were allowed on the putting green. great & sports

Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another. life

Courage is grace under pressure. courage

Hesitation increases in relation to risk in equal proportion to age. age