β
Maybe...you'll fall in love with me all over again."
"Hell," I said, "I love you enough now. What do you want to do? Ruin me?"
"Yes. I want to ruin you."
"Good," I said. "That's what I want too.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
All thinking men are atheists.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Iβm not brave any more darling. Iβm all broken. Theyβve broken me.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
And you'll always love me won't you?
Yes
And the rain won't make any difference?
No
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
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.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
But life isn't hard to manage when you've nothing to lose.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
The world breaks everyone 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.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Why, darling, I don't live at all when I'm not with you.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
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.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Often a man wishes to be alone and a girl wishes to be alone too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can truly say we never felt that. We could feel alone when we were together, alone against the others. But we were never lonely and never afraid when we were together.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I'm not unfaithful, darling. I've plenty of faults but I'm very faithful. You'll be sick of me I'll be so faithful.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
God knows I had not wanted to fall in love with her. I had not wanted to fall in love with any one. But God knows I had and I lay on the bed in the room of the hospital in Milan and all sorts of things went through my head but I felt wonderful...
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Oh, darling, you will be good to me, wonβt you? Because weβre going to have a strange life.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
There isnt always an explanation for everything.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
You've such a lovely temperature.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one'.... (The man who first said that) was probably a coward.... He knew a great deal about cowards but nothing about the brave. The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he's intelligent. He simply doesn't mention them.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
You know I don't love any one but you. You shouldn't mind because some one else loved me.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Wine is a grand thing," I said. "It makes you forget all the bad.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Do you realize that all great literature β "Moby Dick," "Huckleberry Finn," "A Farewell to Arms," "The Scarlet Letter," "The Red Badge of Courage," "The Iliad and The Odyssey," "Crime and Punishment," the Bible, and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" β are all about what a bummer it is to be a ...human being?
β
β
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
β
Cowards die a thousand deaths, but the brave only die once.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
When I saw her I was in love with her. Everything turned over inside of me. She looked toward the door, saw there was no one, then she sat on the side of the bed and leaned over and kissed me.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Keep right on lying to me. That's what I want you to do.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
There isn't any me. I'm you. Don't make up a separate me.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
My life used to be full of everything. Now if you aren't with me I haven't a thing in the world.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
You won't do our things with another girl, or say the same things, will you?
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
It could be worse,' Passini said respectfully. "There is nothing worse than war."
Defeat is worse."
I do not believe it," Passini said still respectfully. "What is defeat? You go home.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I donβt. I donβt want anybody else to touch you. Iβm silly. I get furious if they touch you.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I don't want to be your friend, baby. I am your friend.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Now I am depressed myself,' I said. 'That's why I never think about these things. I never think and yet when I begin to talk I say the things I have found out in my mind without thinking.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
This was the price you paid for sleeping together. This was the end of the trap. This was what people got for loving each other.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I felt very lonely when they were all there.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
War is not won by victory.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Your blood coagulates beautifully.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
It's all nonsense. It's only nonsense. I'm not afraid of the rain. I am not afraid of the rain. Oh, oh, God, I wish I wasn't.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway
β
What you tell me about in the nights. That is not love. That is only passion and lust. When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
A wine shop was open and I went in for some coffee. It smelled of early morning, of swept dust, spoons in coffee-glasses and the wet circles left by wine glasses.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I had gone to no such place but to the smoke of cafes and nights when the room whirled and you needed to look at the wall to make it stop, nights in bed, drunk, when you knew that that was all there was, and the strange excitement of waking and not knowing who it was with you, and the world all unreal in the dark and so exciting that you must resume again unknowing and not caring in the night, sure that this was all and all and all and not caring.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Besides, I'm not jealous. I'm just so in love with you that there isn't anything else.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (Farewell to Arms (SparkNotes Literature Guide Series))
β
You're my religion. You're all I've got.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I kissed her neck and shoulders. I felt faint with loving her so much.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I was blown up while we were eating cheese.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
The questioners had that beautiful detachment and devotion to stern justice of men dealing in death without being in any danger of it.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
But after I got them to leave and shut the door and turned off the light it wasn't any good. It was like saying good-by to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Perhaps wars weren't won anymore. Maybe they went on forever. Maybe it was another Hundred Years' War.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
It is never hopeless. But sometimes I cannot hope. I try always to hope but sometimes I cannot.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
She was crying. I comforted her and she stopped crying. But outside it kept on raining.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
When she cried her whole face went to pieces.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
They were beaten to start with. They were beaten when they took them from their farms and put them in the army. That is why the peasant has wisdom, because he is defeated from the start. Put him in power and see how wise he is.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one?'
'Of course. Who said it?'
'I don't know.'
'He was probably a coward,' she said. "He knew a great deal about cowards but nothing about the brave. The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he's intelligent. He simply doesn't mention them.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
That night at the hotel, in our room with the long empty hall outside and our shoes outside the door, a thick carpet on the floor of the room, outside the windows the rain falling and in the room light and pleasant and cheerful, then the light out and it exciting with smooth sheets and the bed comfortable, feeling that we had come home, feeling no longer alone, waking in the night to find the other one there, and not gone away; all other things were unreal. We slept when we were tired and if we woke the other one woke too so one was not alone. Often a man wishes to be alone and a girl wishes to be alone too and if they love each other they are jealous of that in each other, but I can truly say we never felt that. We could feel alone when we were together, alone against the others ... But we were never lonely and never afraid when we were together. I know that 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. But with Catherine there was almost no difference in the night except that it was an even better time. If people bring so much courage to the 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.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Anger was washed away in the river along with any obligation.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I have noticed that doctors who fail in the practice of medicine have a tendency to seek one another's company and aid in consultation.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Where should we go?ββ¨
βI donβt care. Anywhere you want. β¨Anywhere we donβt know people.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
He had always known what I did not know and what, when I learned it, I was always able to forget. But I did not know that then, although I learned it later.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I explained, winefully, how we did not do the things we wanted to; we never did such things.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
We never get anything. We are born with all we have and we never learn. We never get anything new. We all start complete.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I believe that all the people who stand to profit by a war and who help provoke it should be shot on the first day it starts by accredited representatives of the loyal citizens of their country who will fight it.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
We think. We are not peasants. We are mechanics. But even the peasants know better than to believe in a war. Everybody hates war.
There is a class that control a country that is stupid and down not realise anything and never can. That is why we have this war.
Also they make money out of it.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
And this was the price you paid for sleeping together.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I was a little crazy. But I wasn't crazy in any complicated manner.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Because we would not wear any clothes because it was so hot and the windows open and the swallows flying over the roofs of the houses and when it was dark afterward and you went to the window very small bats hunting over the houses and close down over the trees and we would drink capri and the door locked and it hot and only a sheet and the whole night and we would both love each other all night in the hot night in Milan. That was how it ought to be.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I did not say anything. I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, sometimes standing in the rain almost out of earshot, so that only the shouted words came through, and had read them on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters over other proclamations, now for a long time, and I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stock yards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Once in camp I put a log on a fire and it was full of ants. As it commenced to burn, the ants swarmed out and went first toward the center where the fire was; then turned back and ran toward the end. When there were enough on the end they fell off into the fire. Some got out, their bodies burnt and flattened, and went off not knowing where they were going. But most of them went toward the fire and then back toward the end and swarmed on the cool end and finally fell off into the fire. I remember thinking at the time that it was the end of the world and a splendid chance to be a messiah and lift the log off the fire and throw it out where the ants could get off onto the ground. But I did not do anything but throw a tin cup of water on the log, so that I would have the cup empty to put whiskey in before I added water to it. I think the cup of water on the burning log only steamed the ants.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I only like two other things; one is bad for my work and the other is over in half an hour or fifteen minutes. Sometimes less. Sometimes a good deal less.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I had drunk much wine and afterward coffee and Strega and I explained, winefully, how we did not do the things we wanted to do; we never did such things.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
He said we were all cooked but we were all right as long as we did not know it. We were all cooked. The thing was not to recognize it. The last country to realize they were cooked would win the war.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
It's all nonsense. It's only nonsense. I'm not afraid of the rain. I'm not afraid of the rain. Oh, oh, God, I wish I wasn't.' She was crying. I comforted her and she stopped crying. But outside it kept on raining.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Iβm afraid of the rain because sometimes I see me dead in it.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I don't know," I said. "There isn't always an explanation for everything."
"Oh, isn't there? I was brought up to think there was."
"That's awfully nice.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Blow, blow, ye western wind . . . Christ, that my love were in my arms and I in my bed again. That my love Catherine. That my sweet love Catherine down might rain. Blow her again to me.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
There were many words that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity. Certain numbers were the same way and certain dates and these with the names of the places were all you could say and have them mean anything. Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Now Catherine would die. That was what you did. You died. You did not know what it was about. You never had time to learn. They threw you in and told you the rules and the first time they caught you off base they killed you. Or they killed you gratuitously like Aymo. Or gave you the syphilis like Rinaldi. But they killed you in the end. You could count on that. Stay around and they would kill you.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
When I saw her I was in love with her. Everything turned over inside of me.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
You have known, O Gilgamesh,
What interests me,
To drink from the Well of Immortality.
Which means to make the dead
Rise from their graves
And the prisoners from their cells
The sinners from their sins.
I think love's kiss kills our heart of flesh.
It is the only way to eternal life,
Which should be unbearable if lived
Among the dying flowers
And the shrieking farewells
Of the overstretched arms of our spoiled hopes.
β
β
Herbert Mason (The Epic of Gilgamesh)
β
If people bring so much courage to the world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
They arrested us after breakfast.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
You talk like a time-table. Did you have any beautiful adventures?
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I know that 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.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
For three years I looked forward very childishly to the war ending at Christmas. But now I look forward till when our son will be a lieutenant commander.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.Β
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
The war was a long way away. Maybe there wasn't any war. There was no war here. Then I realized it was over for me. But I did not have the feeling that it was really over. I had the feeling of a boy who thinks of what is happening at a certain hour at the schoolhouse from which he has played truant.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
I kept this to remind me of you trying to brush away the Villa Rossa from your teeth in the morning, swearing and eating aspirin and cursing harlots. Every time I see that glass I think of you trying to clean your conscience with a toothbrush.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
She felt as if she had been crying without end for minutes now.
Yet this parting, this final farewell ...
Aelin looked at Chaol and Dorian and sobbed. Opened her arms to them, and wept as they held each other.
βI love you both,β she whispered. βAnd no matter what may happen, no matter how far we may be, that will never change.β
βWe will see you again,β Chaol said, but even his voice was thick with tears.
βTogether,β Dorian breathed, shaking. βWeβll rebuild this world together.β
She couldnβt stand it, this ache in her chest. But she made herself pull away and smile at their tear-streaked faces, a hand on her heart. βThank you for all you
have done for me.β
Dorian bowed his head. βThose are words Iβd never thought Iβd hear from you.β
She barked a rasping laugh, and gave him a shove. βYouβre a king now. Such
insults are beneath you.β
He grinned, wiping at his face.
Aelin smiled at Chaol, at his wife waiting beyond him. βI wish you every happiness,β she said to him. To them both.
Such light shone in Chaolβs bronze eyesβthat she had never seen before.
βWe will see each other again,β he repeated.
Then he and Dorian turned toward their horses, toward the bright day beyond the castle gates. Toward their kingdom to the south. Shattered now, but not forever.
Not forever.
β
β
Sarah J. Maas (Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7))
β
I knew I did not love Catherine Barkley nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards. Like bridge you had to pretend you were playing for money or playing for some stakes. Nobody had mentioned what the stakes were. It was all right with me.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
...What gets me about D.B., though, he hated the war so much, and yet he got me to read this book A Farewell to Arms last summer. He said it was so terrific. That's what I can't understand. It had this guy in it named Lieutenant Henry that was supposed to be a nice guy and all. I don't see how D.B. could hate the Army and war and all so much and still like a phony like that. I mean, for instance, I don't see how he could like a phony like that and still like that one by Ring Lardner, or that other one he's so crazy about, The Great Gatsby. D.B. got sore when I said that, and said I was too young and all to appreciate it, but I don't think so. I told him I liked Ring Lardner and The Great Gatsby and all. I did, too. I was crazy about The Great Gatsby. Old Gatsby. Old sport. That killed me.
β
β
J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye)
β
But we were never lonely and never afraid when we were together. I know that 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. But with Catherine there was almost no difference in the night except that it was an even better time. 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.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the leaves of the trees. The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves, stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterward the road bare and white except for the leaves.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Wow,β he muttered, his voice choked with tears. βHere we are, the last night and all, and I can't think of anything to say.β
I pressed my palm to his cheek, feeling the moisture beneath my fingers, and smiled at him. βHow about 'goodbye'?β
βNah.β Puck shook his head. βI make a point of never saying goodbye, princess. Makes it sound like you're never coming back.β
βPuckββ
He bent down and kissed me softly on the lips. Ash stiffened, arms tightening around me, but Puck slid out of reach before either of us could react. βTake care of her, ice-boy,β he said, smiling as he backed up several paces. βI guess I won't be seeing you, either, will I? It was...fun, while it lasted.β
βI'm sorry we didn't get to kill each other,β Ash said quietly.
Puck chuckled and bent to retrieve his fallen dagger. βMy one and only regret. Too bad, that would have been an epic fight.β Straightening, he gave us that old, stupid grin, raising a hand in farewell. βSee you around, lovebirds.
β
β
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Queen (The Iron Fey, #3))
β
A writerβs job is to tell the truth. His standard of fidelity to the truth should be so high that his invention, out of his experience, should produce a truer account than anything factual can be. For facts can be observed badly; but when a good writer is creating something, he has time and scope to make an absolute truth.6
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
Rankin put down his glass and stared at him coldly. βI beg your pardon?β he said. βI gather this is some more of your officiousββ
Laurence paid no attention, but seized the back of his chair and heaved. Rankin fell forward, scrabbling to catch himself on the floor. Laurence took him by the scruff of his coat and dragged him up to his feet, ignoring his gasp of pain.
βLaurence, what in Godβs nameββ Lenton said in astonishment, rising to his feet.
βLevitas is dying; Captain Rankin wishes to make his farewells,β Laurence said, looking Lenton squarely in the eye and holding Rankin up by the collar and the arm. βHe begs to be excused.β
The other captains stared, half out of their chairs. Lenton looked at Rankin, then very deliberately sat back down. βVery good,β he said, and reached for the bottle; the other captains slowly sank back down as well.
β
β
Naomi Novik (His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, #1))
β
One of the great Confederate combat leaders, General John B. Gordon, had sat at his horse and spoken farewell to his men. Some he had seen weeping as they folded burnt and shot-pierced battle flags and laid them on the stacked arms of surrender. As he told his troops his own grief he tried to give them hope to rebuild out of the poverty and ashes to which many would return. Gordon would never forget a Kentucky father who lost two sons, one dying for the North, the other for the South. Over the two graves of his soldier boys the father set up a joint monument inscribed "God knows which was right.
β
β
Carl Sandburg (Abraham Lincoln)
β
Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,
Said then the lost Archangel, this the seat
That we must change for heav'n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so since he
Who now is sovereign can dispose and bid
What shall be right. Farthest from him is best Whom reason hath equaled force hath made supreme
Above his equals. Farewell happy fields
Where joy forever dwells. Hail horrors Hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest hell
Receive thy new possessor, one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time
The mind is its own place and in itself
Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.
What matter where if I be still the same
And what I should be--All but less than he
Whom thunder hath made greater. Here at least
We shall be free. Th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy will not drive us hence.
Here we may reign supreme, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in hell.
Better to reign in hell than serve in Heav'n.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
Th'associates and co-partners of our loss
Lie thus astonished on th' oblivious pool.
And call them not to share with us their part
In this unhappy mansion? Or, once more,
With rallying arms, to try what may be yet
Regained in heav'n or what more lost in hell!
β
β
John Milton
β
I had gone to no place where the roads were frozen and hard as iron, where it was clear cold and dry and the snow was dry and powdery and hare-tracks in the snow and the peasants took off their hats and called you Lord and there was good hunting. I had gone to no such place but to the smoke of cafΓ©s and nights when the room whirled and you needed to look at the wall to make it stop, nights in bed, drunk, when you knew that that was all there was, and the strange excitement of waking and not knowing who it was with you, and the world all unreal in the dark and so exciting that you must resume again unknowing and not caring in the night, sure that this was all and all and all and not caring. Suddenly to care very much and to sleep to wake with it sometimes morning and all that had been there gone and everything sharp and hard and clear and sometimes a dispute about the cost. Sometimes still pleasant and fond and warm and breakfast and lunch. Sometimes all niceness gone and glad to get out on the street but always another day starting and then another night. I tried to tell about the night and the difference between the night and the day and how the night was better unless the day was very clean and cold and I could not tell it; as I cannot tell it now
β
β
Ernest Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms)
β
They wonβt get us,β I said. βBecause youβre too brave. Nothing ever happens to the brave.β
βThey die of course.β
βBut only once.β
βI donβt know. Who said that?β
βThe coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one?β
βOf course. Who said it?β
βI donβt know.β
βHe was probably a coward,β she said. βHe knew a great deal about cowards but nothing about the brave. The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if heβs intelligent. He simply doesnβt mention them.β
βI donβt know. Itβs hard to see inside the head of the brave.β
βYes. Thatβs how they keep that way.β
βYouβre an authority.β
βYouβre right, darling. That was deserved.β
βYouβre brave.β
βNo,β she said. βBut I would like to be.
β
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Ernest Hemingway
β
Live, and be prosperous: and farewell, good fellow. Juliet! ...O my love! my wife!
Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty: Thou art not conquered; beauty's ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And death's pale flag is not advanced there. Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet? O, what more favor can I do to thee, Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain To sunder his that was thine enemy? Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet, Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe That unsubstantial death is amorous, And that the lean abhorred monster keeps Thee here in dark to be his paramour? For fear of that, I still will stay with thee; And never from this palace of dim night Depart again: here, here will I remain With worms that are thy chamber-maids...Eyes, look your last. Arms, take your last embrace. and, lips, O you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death... Here's to my love!...Thus with a kiss I die.
β
β
William Shakespeare
β
Good morning on the 7th of July.
while still in bed my thoughts turn towards you my Immortal Beloved, now and then happy, then sad again, waiting whether Fate might answer us. β I can only live either wholly with you or not at all, yes, I have resolved to stray about far away until I can fly into your arms, and feel at home with you, and send my soul embraced by you into the realm of the Spirits. β Yes, unfortunately it must be. β You will compose yourself, all the more since you know my faithfulness to you, never can another own my heart, never β never. β Oh God why do I have to separate from someone whom I love so much, and yet my life in V[ienna] as it is now is a miserable life. β Your love makes me at once most happy and most unhappy. β At my age, I would now need some conformity regularity in my life β can this exist in our relationship? β Angel, I just learned that the post goes every day β and I must therefore conclude so that you get the l[etter] straightway β be patient, only through quiet contemplation of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together β be calm β love me β today β yesterday. β What yearning with tears for you β you β you β my life β my everything β farewell β oh continue to love me β never misjudge the most faithful heart of your Beloved
L.
Forever thine
forever mine
forever us.
β
β
Ludwig van Beethoven