You never kill any one that you want to kill in a war, he said to himself.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the complex nature of killing in war, suggesting that personal desires often do not align with the realities of combat.
In this quote, Hemingway delves into the psychological turmoil that individuals experience during war. It highlights the internal conflict where the desire to harm or kill may not manifest in the chaotic environment of battle, emphasizing the disconnection between oneβs intentions and actions in such extreme situations. It suggests a deeper philosophical question about moral agency in the context of warfare.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the moral implications of warfare during a debate on military ethics.
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.
Consider that the trials and troubles, the calamities and miseries, the crosses and losses that you meet with in this world, are all the hell that ever you shall have.
This land is your land, this land is my land
Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.
We live in a world that treats the dead better than the living. We, the living are askers of questions and givers of answers, and we have other grave defects unpardonable by a system that believes death, like money, improves people.
All things are subject to decay and when fate summons, monarchs must obey.
It was the meanest moment of eternity.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.