“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.”
Ernest Hemingway
Notes on the Next War (Primary source)
In Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter, published in Esquire in 1935, Ernest Hemingway offers a dark, reflective, and ironically humorous meditation on the looming threat of another global conflict—what would eventually become World War II. Writing between the two world wars, Hemingway draws on his own harrowing experiences in World War I to critique the glorification of war and to expose its brutal psychological and physical costs.
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“The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“Never to go on trips with anyone you do not love.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“Every day above earth is a good day.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary sourceMore quotes by Ernest Hemingway →
“This is a good place,” he said.
“There’s a lot of liquor,” I agreed.
“In those days we did not trust anyone who had not been in the war, but we did not completely trust anyone.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“The best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Disputed“Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source