Personal columnists are jackals and no jackal has been known to live on grass once he had learned about meat - no matter who killed the meat for him.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that once someone has tasted the richness of something better, like truth or quality content, they will not settle for less.
Ernest Hemingway uses the metaphor of jackals and their diet to highlight the nature of personal columnists, implying that once they experience the richness of quality journalism or truth (the 'meat'), they become accustomed to seeking it, and cannot revert to lesser quality (the 'grass'). The quote illustrates a commentary on the consumption of media and the insatiable desire for more profound insights over superficial content.
In practice
In a discussion about changing standards in journalism, one might quote Hemingway to emphasize the importance of integrity and quality.
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.
The door to the soul is unlocked; you do not need to please the doorkeeper, the door in front of you is yours, intended for you, and the doorkeeper obeys when spoken to.
People are not ants or bees. We do not reason or love or live or die collectively.
I was awfully curious to find out why I didn't go insane.
The unyielding army will not win.
As soon as he ceased to be mad he became merely stupid. There are maladies we must not seek to cure because they alone protect us from others that are more serious.
The poor are great! The poor are wonderful! The poor are very generous! They give us much more than what we give them.
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