The 7 Best Phrases Of Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway’s quotes have inspired many of his readers. They are a gift for anyone who wants to investigate himself and also deepen the vision of one of the great authors of the twentieth century.

Ernest Hemingway was an American writer and journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea and the Nobel Prize in Literature for his complete work in 1954.  Reviewing his literary career, we find seven novels, two essays and four short story collections and posthumously, three novels, three essays, and four more storybooks were released.

They say that Hemingway was not in favor of planning his writing, since he loved to discover while he was writing. Now, he liked to retrace his steps to correct, to learn. Another peculiar feature of this writing and that he himself confessed to a journalist from The Paris Review, is that he wrote standing up, on a table at chest height, where he had his typewriter and some notebooks. In addition, every day he wrote down the number of words he had written on a picture on the wall to see how the work day had gone (his goal was to reach 500-600 words).

As we can see, Hemingway was a man of routine with a sober style, steeped in austerity, and who also had a great commitment to writing. So much so that he considered it a private act, not showing his works to anyone until they were finished. In addition, he thought that the exercise of writing required solitude and concentration.

Lovers or not of his work, Hemingway undoubtedly had a gift for writing.  His stories inaugurated something like a new type of realism, with roots in the North American stories of the 19th century, but with a certain tendency towards the harsh daily life with poetic features. Without a doubt, he left a great legacy on which we navigate today remembering some of his best phrases.

The ability to improve yourself

This is one of Ernest Hemingway’s phrases that can most enrich our relationships. True greatness is not found in surpassing others, but in surpassing yourself. In continuing to grow, despite storms, obstacles or challenges; thanks to storms, obstacles or challenges. Because perhaps our great contradiction is one that is expressed precisely in this idea: what challenges us the most is perhaps also what can feed us the most.

The wisdom of listening

Ernest Hemingway was very clear about it: few people really know how to listen; most only listen, paying sense but not attention. Now, listening is one of the best tools for creating strong and intimate bonds. 

When we listen we pay deep attention because we turn all our senses towards the other. We stop focusing on ourselves to make the other and their story visible, to connect deeply on an emotional level. Only then will we be able to create relationships stitched through the threads of authenticity.

Self-love as a support

Another of Ernest Hemingway’s phrases that we must burn into our minds. Losing yourself loving another is one of the greatest losses that we can experience because we become invisible in our eyes.

To truly love others, a solid self-love is necessary,  which in turn is supported by the habit of  valuing ourselves beyond error and reproach. Only then can we give the best of ourselves; otherwise, we will give ourselves half-heartedly, with gaps and emotional needs that we will hope others will fill.

The inner fortress

We all break down at certain times, we fall apart and we believe that it is impossible to get back up, to rebuild ourselves. But that’s when we have to take hold of our inner strength, the one that remains asleep when everything is going well. 

Despite misfortunes, breakups, losses and bad times, there is always the possibility of recovering, of moving forward by accumulating ingenuity and will. Because if someone has to put a floor to the fall and find projections that allow us to rejoin, it is us.

Cowardice as an illusion

The ghosts from which fear is born are often just illusions that levitate in our minds. Thus, many of the people we consider brave are not people who actually have a higher value, but people who are intelligent when it comes to dealing with the thoughts that they generate themselves.

The useless worry

This is another of Ernest Hemingway’s phrases that we most have to remember on a daily basis. Worrying is wasting time, wasting life. Because what is the use of going around and around instead of acting?

If there is the possibility of taking the step, of acting to solve what worries us, we better take a step forward before we are completely filled with fears and fears. Immobility has never led to success. So let’s get busy and worry less.

The constant choice to try

Powerful phrase to stop our impulses and give reason a chance. Better to calm the nerves and instant rage of the moment than to carry out actions that we will later regret.

As we can see, Ernest Hemingway’s phrases constitute, as a compass, a wonderful thread to reflect on life, relationships and self-love, both for what they say and for what they inspire. Words to turn to whenever we need it for what they remind us of.