Quotes from A Farewell to Arms

Ernest Hemingway ·  293 pages

Rating: (218.9K votes)


“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.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from 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.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“I’m not brave any more darling. I’m all broken. They’ve broken me.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“And you'll always love me won't you?
Yes
And the rain won't make any difference?
No”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms



“But life isn't hard to manage when you've nothing to lose.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“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.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“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.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms



“Why, darling, I don't live at all when I'm not with you.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“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...”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“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.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“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.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“Oh, darling, you will be good to me, won’t you? Because we’re going to have a strange life.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms



“You know I don't love any one but you. You shouldn't mind because some one else loved me.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“Wine is a grand thing," I said. "It makes you forget all the bad.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“There isnt always an explanation for everything.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“Keep right on lying to me. That's what I want you to do.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“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.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms



“Cowards die a thousand deaths, but the brave only die once.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“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.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“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.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“There isn't any me. I'm you. Don't make up a separate me.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“You won't do our things with another girl, or say the same things, will you?”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms



“My life used to be full of everything. Now if you aren't with me I haven't a thing in the world.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“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.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


“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.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from A Farewell to Arms


About the author

Ernest Hemingway
Born place: in Oak Park, Illinois, The United States
Born date July 21, 1899
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