He did not care for the lying at first. He hated it. Then later he had come to like it. It was part of being an insider but it was a very corrupting business.
Interpretation
Hemingway reflects on the moral compromise one faces when engaging with deceit in society.
This quote from Ernest Hemingway captures the journey of a person who initially detests dishonesty but eventually grows accustomed to it, illustrating how the allure of being part of an insider's circle can lead to moral corruption. It suggests a deep philosophical question about integrity and the compromises individuals make for acceptance or success within a corrupt environment.
In practice
During a discussion on ethical dilemmas in business.
He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about the boy. He simply woke, looked out the open door at the moon and unrolled his trousers and put them on.
How did you go bankrupt?" Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.
When you have shot one bird flying you have shot all birds flying. They are all different and they fly in different ways but the sensation is the same and the last one is as good as the first.
There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it. But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy.
Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.
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.
The thing about talking about human rights is that when one bears in mind the sharp end of it, one does not want to worry too much about semantics.
The bonds that unite another person to our self exist only in our mind.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
A critic is to an author as a fungus to an oak.
No man dares to condemn the Christian faith today, because the Christian faith has not been tried. Not until men get rid of the thought that it is a poor machine, an expedient for saving them from suffering and pain; not until they get the grand idea of it as the great power of God present in and through the lives of men; not until then does Christianity enter upon its true trial and become ready to show what it can do.
Too much has been forgotten in the name of memory.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.