Quotes by Ernest Hemingway


Ernest Miller Hemingway
(July 21, 1899 — July 2, 1961)
novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. Hemingway's distinctive writing style is characterized by economy and understatement, and had a significant influence on the development of twentieth-century fiction writing. His protagonists are typically stoical men who exhibit an ideal described as "grace under pressure." Many of his works are now considered classics of American literature.

You can wipe out your opponents

You can wipe out your opponents. But if you do it unjustly you become eligible for being wiped out yourself.

— Ernest Hemingway

The world breaks everyone

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

— Ernest Hemingway

The shortest answer

The shortest answer is doing the thing.

— Ernest Hemingway

Decadence is a difficult word to use

Decadence is a difficult word to use since it has become little more than a term of abuse applied by critics to anything they do not yet understand or which seems to differ from their moral concepts.

— Ernest Hemingway

Cowardice...

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

— Ernest Hemingway

destroyed but not defeated

A man can be destroyed but not defeated.

— Ernest Hemingway