But Paris was a very old city and we were young and nothing was simple there, not even poverty, nor sudden money, nor the moonlight, nor right and wrong nor the breathing of someone who lay beside you in the moonlight.
Interpretation
The complexities of life in a historic city like Paris can make even basic concepts challenging to navigate.
Ernest Hemingway's quote reflects on the intricate nature of life in a city rich with history, capturing the idea that even simple experiences or emotions, such as poverty, wealth, or love, are infused with complexities that challenge our understanding. His use of contrasting ideas illustrates the paradoxical nature of existence, particularly in a place as layered as Paris, where the ordinary is intertwined with the extraordinary, prompting deeper contemplation about human experiences.
In practice
In a motivational speech about navigating life's complexities, this quote could illustrate the challenge of understanding personal struggles.
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.
And...I think that's what life is all about, actually, about children and flowers.
What keeps life fascinating is the constant creativity of the soul.
With the draft, everybody was involved. Everybody was fodder. When you got to be 21, 22 and graduated from college, for two years your life stopped. If you had been running in the direction of your life, you had to stop and do this other thing which was, if not menacing, just plain boring.
When people ask me if it has been a hard or easy road, I always answer with the same quotation, the end is nothing, the road is all.Willa Cather
Do you remember how life yearned out of childhood toward the "great thing?" I see that it is now yearning forth beyond the great thing toward the greater one.
The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.