"Scott took LITERATURE so solemnly. He never understood that it was just writing as well as you can and finishing what you start."

Ernest Hemingway Literature See all quotes by Ernest Hemingway →

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More by Ernest Hemingway

“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 do firmly believe that the Londoner is as contented with his city home as the dweller in the fairest valley among the Appennines ; and that habit brings its usual indifference as to place."

— Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Literature1802–1838

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"The world as a sense, independent of the image, of the idea - this is the essence of the content of art. square is not an image, just as a switch or socket are not the current. - Malevich"

— Kazimir Malevich

Art1879–1935

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"The concept of property itself had come up out of the common law and carried with it the idea of a natural, or common-law rights of liberty to acquire, use and dispose of physical things."

— John R. Commons

Economics1862–1945

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"Hadiya Pendleton was me and I was her, but I got to grow up and go to Princeton and Harvard Law School and have a career and a family and the most blessed life I could ever imagine. And Hadiya, we kno…"

— Michelle Obama

Politics1964

#justice