12 of the best Ernest Hemingway quotes

1. "The way to make people trust-worthy is to trust them."
Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917-1961

2. "When people talk listen completely. Don't be thinking what you're going to say. Most people never listen.”
Across the River and into the Trees, 1967

3. “But man is not made for defeat… A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
The Old Man and The Sea, 1952

4. “Courage is grace under pressure.”

5. “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
A Farewell to Arms, 1929

6. “Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt use it—don't cheat with it. Be as faithful to it as a scientist—but don't think anything is of any importance because it happens to you or anyone belonging to you.”
Letter to Scott Fitzgerald, dated 28 May 1934

7. “Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.”

8. “As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand.”

9. “In order to write about life first you must live it.” 

10. "An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.”

11. “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”

12. “There is no friend as loyal as a book.”