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  • 9-SEP-2025 | Excerpt from “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway

9-SEP-2025 | Excerpt from “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway

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Dan Bogachek
September 09, 2025

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Excerpt from “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway

I have been alone while I was with many girls and that is the way you can be most lonely. But we were never lonely and never afraid when we were together. I know that the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different, that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for lonely people once their loneliness has started. But with Catherine there was almost no difference in the night except that it was an even better time. 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. 🏁

This feels longer than what I usually associate with Hemingway.

Pay attention to how each sentence registers as you finish reading it. It’s as if the meaning or feeling of each one snaps into place within the last few syllables.

Note the use of repetition to link ideas or to create contrast.