"Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war."

Ernest Hemingway Literature See all quotes by Ernest Hemingway →

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“I've been in love (truly) with five women, the Spanish Republic and the 4th Infantry Division.”

“I know monks masturbate at night That pet cats screw That some girls bite And yet What can I do To set things right?”

“Grace under pressure.”

“I wonder what your idea of heaven would be — A beautiful vacuum filled with wealthy monogamists. All powerful and members of the best families all drinking themselves to death. And hell would probably be an ugly vacuum full of poor polygamists unable to obtain booze or with chronic stomach disorders that they called secret sorrows.”

“The age demanded that we danceAnd jammed us into iron pants.And in the end the age was handedThe sort of shit that it demanded.”

“All you can be sure about in a political-minded writer is that if his work should last you will have to skip the politics when you read it. Many of the so-called politically enlisted writers change their politics frequently... Perhaps it can be respected as a form of the pursuit of happiness.”

Resonant Thoughts

"I was going to call it a mistake, but you could argue that there are no mistakes in war, only fortunate and less fortunate events."

— Alastair Reynolds

Literature1966

#war

"An example: if I compose a picture using as objects a scrap of bark, a scrap of butterfly wing and a purely imaginary form, you probably won't recognise the bark, or the butterfly wing, and you'll say…"

— Fernand Léger

Art1881–1955

#music

"Space is an illusion, and time as well. There is no such factor as either time or space. We have been blinded by our own cleverness, blinded by false perceptions of those qualities that we term eterni…"

— Clifford D. Simak

Literature1904–1988

#time

"I once wrote a lecture for Manchester University called « Moments of Discovery » in which I said that there are two moments that are important. There's the moment when you know you can find out the an…"

— Dorothy Hodgkin

Science1910–1994

#science