Never delay kissing a pretty girl or opening a bottle of whiskey
Interpretation
Seize the moment and enjoy life's pleasures without hesitation.
This quote by Ernest Hemingway encourages spontaneity and the appreciation of life's fleeting moments. It suggests that one should not procrastinate when it comes to experiencing joy, whether through intimate connections or the simple pleasures of good whiskey, as these opportunities may not always present themselves again.
In practice
During a speech about making the most of life at a graduation ceremony.
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.
So you can't dance? Not at all? Not even one step? How can you say that you've taken any trouble to live when you won't even dance?
You just don't know in life. Life knocks you about and pushes you over boundaries. But be ready. Do your homework; that's all I can say.
Take away the miseries and you take away some folks' reason for living.
My dear, dear girl [. . .] we can't turn back the days that have gone. We can't turn life back to the hours when our lungs were sound, our blood hot, our bodies young. We are a flash of fire--a brain, a heart, a spirit. And we are three-cents-worth of lime and iron--which we cannot get back.
My mother was right when she said that turning pro would take away my youth.
When we were walking through the narrow alleys [of the Mathare Valley slums], it was literally impossible not to step in the raw sewage and the garbage alongside the little homes. But at the same time it was also impossible not to see the human vitality, the aspiration and the ambition of the people who live there.
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