Rush, that most exciting perversion of life, the necessity of accomplishing something in less time than should be truly allowed for its doing.
Interpretation
Rush signifies the unnatural pressure to achieve quickly, robbing experiences of their essence.
In this quote, Hemingway critiques the modern obsession with speed and urgency, highlighting how the pressure to accomplish tasks in a rushed manner detracts from the true essence of life. By labeling this rush as a 'perversion,' he suggests that the quality of our experiences suffers when we prioritize quick results over taking the necessary time to fully engage with life and its moments.
In practice
Use this quote in a discussion about work-life balance at a corporate meeting.
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.
So far are we generally from thinking what we often say of the shortness of life, that at the time when it is necessarily shortest we form projects which we delay to execute, indulge such expectations as nothing but along train of events can gratify, and suffer those passions to gain upon us which are only excusable in the prime of life.
The first and most important thing a man should keep away from is not doing harm of any kind knowingly to anyone, at any time.
America didnβt bypass or escape civilization. It did something far more profound, far cleverer: it simply changed what civilization could be.
There is an ultimate wildness in all this, for the universe, as existence itself, is a terrifying as well as a benign mode of being. If it grants us amazing powers over much of its functioning we must always remember that any arrogance on our part will ultimately be called to account. The beginning of wisdom in any human activity is a certain reverence before the primordial mystery of existence, for the world about us is a fearsome mode of being. We do not judge the universe.
Indignation must always be the answer to indignity. Reality is not destiny.
My teacher said once that every man faces seven enemies in his lifetime. Sickness, hunger, betrayal, envy, greed, old age, and then death.
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