Ernest Hemingway Quotes: 60 Inspirational Words About Life and Writing

1. “Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”

2. “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”

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

4. “Never confuse movement with action.”

5. “The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”

6. “A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.”

7. “Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.”

8. “Courage is grace under pressure.”

9. "Critics are men who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors."

10. "There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self."

11. "The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too."

12. "Every day above earth is a good day."

13. "You may talk. And I may listen. And miracles might happen."

14. "To hell with them. Nothing hurts if you don't let it."

15. "How little we know of what there is to know."

1. "Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you quit, try."

2. “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.”

3. "The rain will stop, the night will end, the hurt will fade. Hope is never so lost that it can't be found."

4. "Night is always darker before the dawn and life is the same, the hard times will pass, every thing will get better and sun will shine brighter then ever."

5. "Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry: Worry never fixes anything."

6. "You must be prepared to work always without applause."

7. "Being against evil doesn't make you good."

8. "We wait always for something that does not come."

9. "Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with that there is"

10. "We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master."

11. "We're stronger in the places that we've been broken."

12. "No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful."

13. "Work every day. No matter what has happened the day or night before, get up and bite on the nail."

14. "For what are we born if not to aid one another?"

15. "Fear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth."

1. "There is no friend as loyal as a book."

2. "All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they really happened and after you are finished reading one you feel that it all happened to you and after which it all belongs to you."

3. "No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader."

4. "Easy writing makes hard reading."

5. “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

7. “The first draft of anything is shit.”

8. “As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand.”

9. “All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”

10. "In order to write about life first you must live it."

11. "Writing, at its best, is a lonely life."

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

13. "To be successful in writing, use short sentences."

14. "There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges."

15. "Write hard and clear about what hurts."

16. "The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it."

17. "You know you’re writing well when you're throwing good stuff into the wastebasket."

18. "If a writer stops observing he is finished. Experience is communicated by small details intimately observed."

19. "When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature."

20. "Show the readers everything, tell them nothing."

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

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

3. “I drink to make other people more interesting.”

4. "Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports... all the others are games."

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

6. "Write drunk; edit sober."

7. "My only regret in life is that I did not drink more wine."

8. "Everything is your fault if you're any damn good."

9. "Never delay kissing a pretty girl or opening a bottle of whiskey."

10. "No animal has more liberty than the cat, but it buries the mess it makes. The cat is the best anarchist."