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“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“The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary sourceMore quotes by Ernest Hemingway →
“If you know that this life is all that you have, wouldn’t you make the most of it?”
— Ayn Rand Disputed“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 essence of friendship is entireness, a total magnanimity and trust.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“This people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source