Hemingways quotations

"The trunks of the trees too were dusty and the leaves fell early that year and
we saw the troops marching along the road and the dust rising and leaves,
stirred by the breeze, falling and the soldiers marching and afterward the road
bare and white except for the leaves."

I had gone to no such place, but to the smoke of cafes and nights when the
room whirled and you needed to look at the wall to make it stop, nights in bed,
drunk, when you knew that that was all there was, and the strange excitement
of waking and not knowing who it was with you, and the world all unreal in the
dark and so exciting that you must resume again unknowing and not caring in
the night, sure that this was all and all and all and not caring.

There, darling. Now youre all clean inside and out. Tell me. How many people
have you ever loved?
Nobody.
Not even me?
Yes, you.
How many others really?
None.
How many have youhow do you say it?stayed with?
None.
Youre lying to me.
Yes.
Its all right. Keep right on lying to me. Thats what I want you to do. Were
they pretty?

I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and
the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the
meat except to bury it. There were many words that you could not stand to
hear and finally only the names of places had dignity. Certain numbers were
the same way and certain dates and these with the names of the places were
all you could say and have them mean anything. Abstract words such as glory,
honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages,
the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the
dates.

But we were never lonely and never afraid when we were together. I know
that the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different, that the
things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then
exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their
loneliness has started. But with Catherine there was almost no difference in
the night except that it was an even better time. If people bring so much
courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it
kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the
broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and
the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you
can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.

Poor, poor dear Cat[herine]. And this was the price you paid for sleeping
together. This was the end of the trap. This was what people got for loving
each other. Thank God for gas [aether, an anesthetics], anyway. What must it
have been like before there were anesthetics?