Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination.
Interpretation
Cowardice stems from an inability to control one's imagination and fears.
In this quote, Ernest Hemingway emphasizes that cowardice is not merely a momentary fear or panic, but a deeper inability to manage one's imaginative fears. This reflects how our mind can conjure up worst-case scenarios that paralyze us, preventing us from taking courageous actions in the face of adversity.
In practice
During a motivational speech on facing fears.
He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about the boy. He simply woke, looked out the open door at the moon and unrolled his trousers and put them on.
How did you go bankrupt?" Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.
When you have shot one bird flying you have shot all birds flying. They are all different and they fly in different ways but the sensation is the same and the last one is as good as the first.
There is never any ending to Paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it. But this is how Paris was in the early days when we were very poor and very happy.
Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.
There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.
It wasn't that the X-1 would kill you, it was the systems in the X-1 that would kill you.
Be fearless, be brave, be bold, love yourself
People respond differently to people who are grieving. They reach out. But depression is so very isolating. It's hard to explain to anyone who has never been depressed how isolating it is. Grief comes and goes, but depression is unremitting.
If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary.
Never give up. Never give in. Never become hostile... Hate is too big a burden to bear.
I have learned that a woman can be a fighter, a freedom fighter, a political activist, and that she can fall in love, and be loved, she can be married, have children, be a mother... Revolution must mean life also; every aspect of life.
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