“War is no longer made by simply analysed economic forces if it ever was. War is made or planned now by individual men, demagogues and dictators who play on the patriotism of their people to mislead them into a belief in the great fallacy of war when all their vaunted reforms have failed to satisfy the people they misrule.”
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 →
“Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“The main military purpose and scheme of the Dictators is to produce quick results, to avoid a prolonged war. A prolonged war never suits dictators.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source“I don’t play in a game where the other people are wise and I’m stupid. I look for a place where I’m wise and they’re stupid.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source