A Farewell to Arms

“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.”
-A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway

This resonates with me. I read it and understand the world we live in is a harsh one that brings everyone to same the end. I also feel it to be a judgement. That a life lived with courage is one that inevitably invites turmoil and difficulty, and will perhaps be necessarily short. While a life without courage will likely keep you safe while offering little in the way of hardship, growth, or meaning.

“I know the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different, that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started.” A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway

“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.” – Ernest Hemingway

I think part of what I enjoy about this is both how much I agree with it (even if I’m not always effective in practicing it), and that it so readily reflects Hemingway’s writing style.

For Whom the Bells Toll

“There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. How old must you be before you know that? There is only now, and if now is only two days, then two days is your life and everything in it will be in proportion. This is how you live a life in two days. And if you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life. A good life is not measured by any biblical span.”
-For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway

A good reminder, said well, and said simply.