Ernest Hemingway

Novelist, journalist

Modern influential 89 sayings

Sayings by Ernest Hemingway

Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.

1952 — From 'The Old Man and the Sea'
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The way to learn whether you can trust a man is to give him trust.

1950s — Attributed, common wisdom
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

We are all bitched from the start and you are a lucky man to remember it.

1929 — From 'A Farewell to Arms'
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The courage of a lion is nothing compared to the courage of a mother.

1950s — Attributed, common wisdom
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Never mistake motion for action.

1950s — Attributed, often quoted
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The world is a good place and worth the fighting for.

1940 — From 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.

1930s-1950s — Attributed, often quoted for humor
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

If a writer stops observing he is finished. But he does not have to observe consciously nor think too much about what he is seeing. It will come out in his writing if he truly sees it.

1932 — From 'Death in the Afternoon'
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

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

1958 — Interview with George Plimpton for The Paris Review
Strange & Unusual Confirmed

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

1942 — Introduction to 'Men at War' anthology
Strange & Unusual Confirmed

I have a good life but I must write because if I do not write a certain amount I do not enjoy the rest of my life.

1932 — Letter to his editor Maxwell Perkins
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.

1935 — 'Green Hills of Africa'
Strange & Unusual Confirmed

Never confuse movement with action.

1925 — Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

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

1935 — 'Notes on the Next War' in Esquire magazine
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The hardest thing in the world to do is to write straight honest prose about human beings.

Unknown — Interview
Strange & Unusual Unverifiable

The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.

1935 — Notes on the Next War (Esquire)
Controversial Unverifiable

Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.

1932 — Death in the Afternoon
Controversial Unverifiable

When you stop doing things for fun you might as well be dead.

Uncertain — Attributed, but hard to find a specific published source. It reflects his adventurous spirit.
Controversial Unverifiable

I still believe, though, that the best writing is done on an empty stomach.

1958 — Interview with George Plimpton, The Paris Review
Controversial Unverifiable

Courage is grace under pressure.

1958 — Interview with George Plimpton, The Paris Review
Controversial Unverifiable