“Spanish girls make wonderful wives. I’ve never had one so I know.”
Ernest Hemingway
For Whom the Bell Tolls (Primary source)
Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, published in 1940, is a powerful and introspective novel set during the Spanish Civil War. The story follows Robert Jordan, an American volunteer fighting with the anti-fascist Republican forces. As a dynamiter assigned to blow up a bridge critical to an upcoming Republican offensive, Jordan’s mission becomes a lens through which Hemingway explores themes of duty, sacrifice, love, death, and the complex nature of war.
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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“But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“Never to go on trips with anyone you do not love.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“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.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary sourceMore quotes by Ernest Hemingway →
“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”
— Helen Keller Primary source“Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt Disputed“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source