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He Knew He Would Not Be Afraid. Even If He Ever Was Afraid He Knew That He Could Do It Anyway.
-Ernest Hemingway
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He Knew He Would

Ernest Hemingway
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He Knew He Would Not Be Afraid. Even If He Ever Was Afraid He Knew That He Could Do It Anyway.

Understanding the Quote: "he knew he would not be afraid. even if he ever was..."

This quote by Ernest Hemingway reflects deeply on the theme of ifs. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Ifs, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Ernest Hemingway interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway is celebrated for insightful thoughts on ifs and motivation. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Ifs
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When I Am Working On A Book Or A Story I Write Every Morning As Soon After First Light As Possible. There Is No One To Disturb You And It Is Cool Or Cold And You Come To Your Work And Warm As You Write. . . .when You Stop You Are As Empty, And At The Same Time Never Empty But Filling, As When You Have E Made Love To Someone You Love. Nothing Can Hurt You, Nothing Can Happen, Nothing Means Anything Until The Next Day When You Do It Again. It Is The Wait Until The Next Day That Is Hard To Get Through.
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The Ocean Is Worth Writing About Just As Man Is.
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Tell Me Some True Things About Fighting.''tell Me You Love Me.''i Love You,' The Girl Said. 'you Can Publish It In The Gazzettino If You Like. I Love Your Hard, Flat Body And Your Strange Eyes That Frighten Me When They Become Wicked. I Love Your Hand And All Your Other Wounded Places.
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Why Must All Of The Operations In Life Be Performed Without An Anesthetic?
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She Was Looking Into My Eyes With That Way She Had Of Looking That Made You Wonder Whether She Really Saw Out Of Her Own Eyes. They Would Look On And On After Every One Else's Eyes In The World Would Have Stopped Looking. She Looked As Though There Were Nothing On Earth She Would Not Look At Like That, And Really She Was Afraid Of So Many Things.
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What I Learned Constructive About Women, Not Just Ethics Like Never Blame Them If They Pox You Because Somebody Poxed Them And Lots Of Times They Don't Even Know They Have It — That's In The First Reader For Squares — Is, No Matter How They Get, Always Think Of Them The Way They Were On The Best Day They Ever Had.
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No Weapon Has Ever Settled A Moral Problem. It Can Impose A Solution But It Cannot Guarantee It To Be A Just One. You Can Wipe Out Your Opponents. But If You Do It Unjustly You Become Eligible For Being Wiped Out Yourself.
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It Wasn't By Accident That The Gettysburg Address Was So Short.
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Rush, That Most Exciting Perversion Of Life, The Necessity Of Accomplishing Something In Less Time Than Should Be Truly Allowed For Its Doing.
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All Stories, If Continued Far Enough, End In Death.
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And This Was The Price You Paid For Sleeping Together.
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I Was So Sentimental About You I'd Break Any One's Heart For You. My, I Was A Damned Fool. I Broke My Own Heart, Too. It's Broken And Gone. Everything I Believe In And Everything I Cared About I Left For You Because You Were So Wonderful And You Loved Me So Much That Love Was All That Mattered. Love Was The Greatest Thing, Wasn't It?
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He Saw The Girl Watching Him And He Smiled At Her. It Was An Old Smile That He Had Been Using For Fifty Years, Ever Since He First Smiled.
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It Could Be Worse,' Passini Said Respectfully. "there Is Nothing Worse Than War." Defeat Is Worse." I Do Not Believe It," Passini Said Still Respectfully. "what Is Defeat? You Go Home.
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To Be Able To Say: I Loved This Person, We Had A Hell Of A Nice Time Together, It's Over But In A Way It Will Never Be Over And I Do Know That I For Sure Loved This Person, To Be Able To Say That And Mean It, That's Rare. That's Rare And Valuable.
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You Did Not Kill The Fish Only To Keep Alive And To Sell For Food, He Thought. You Killed Him For Pride And Because You Are A Fisherman. You Loved Him When He Was Alive And You Loved Him After. If You Love Him, It Is Not A Sin To Kill Him. Or Is It More?
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Now Catherine Would Die. That Was What You Did. You Died. You Did Not Know What It Was About. You Never Had Time To Learn. They Threw You In And Told You The Rules And The First Time They Caught You Off Base They Killed You. Or They Killed You Gratuitously Like Aymo. Or Gave You The Syphilis Like Rinaldi. But They Killed You In The End. You Could Count On That. Stay Around And They Would Kill You.
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It Wasn't By Accident That The Gettysburg Address Was So Short. The Laws Of Prose Writing Are As Immutable As Those Of Flight, Of Mathematics, Of Physics.
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Addresses
Oh, Darling, You Will Be Good To Me, Won’t You? Because We’re Going To Have A Strange Life.
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The World Was Not Wheeling Anymore. It Was Just Very Clear And Bright And Inclined To Blur At The Edges.
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They Arrested Us After Breakfast.
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There Are Worse Places To Be Than On Your Own.
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Modern Life ... Is Often A Mechanical Oppression And Liquor Is The Only Mechanical Relief.
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Modern Life
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What Difference Does It Make If You Live In A Picturesque Little Outhouse Surrounded By 300 Feeble Minded Goats And Your Faithful Dog? The Question Is: Can You Write?
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I’m Not Brave Any More Darling. I’m All Broken. They’ve Broken Me.
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Brave
Farewell To Arms
When Things Are Going Well, I Like To Have People To Share It With. I've Been Alone In Troubled Times, And I Don't Mind That. Some Things Have To Be Endured Alone. As Hemingway Said, The Human Being Is Strong In All The Broken Places.
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Hate
Love Is
The Worst Death For Anyone Is To Lose The Center Of His Being, The Thing He Really Is. Retirement Is The Filthiest Word In The Language. Whether By Choice Or By Fate, To Retire From What You Do - And Makes You What You Are - Is To Back Up Into The Grave.
Retirement
Fate
Choices
No Well-run Yacht Basin In Southern Waters Is Complete Without At Least Two Sun-burned, Salt Bleached-headed Esthonians Who Are Waiting For A Check From Their Last Article. When It Comes They Will Set Sail To Another Yacht Basin And Write Another Saga.
Two
World
Estonia
All Good Books Are Alike In That They Are Truer Than If They Had Really Happened And After You Are Finished Reading One You Will Feel That All That Happened To You And Afterwards It All Belongs To You: The Good And The Bad, The Ecstasy, The Remorse And Sorrow, The People And The Places And How The Weather Was. If You Can Get So That You Can Give That To People, Then You Are A Writer.
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Reading
Live The Full Life Of The Mind, Exhilarated By New Ideas, Intoxicated By The Romance Of The Unusual.
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Romance
Mind
The Best Ammunition Against Lies Is The Truth, There Is No Ammunition Against Gossip. It Is Like A Fog And The Clear Wind Blows It Away And The Sun Burns It Off.
Lying
Blow
Fog
Oh, Darling, I've Been So Miserable.
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Darling
I Would Take Anything I Love And Throw It Off The Highest Cliff You Ever Saw And Not Wait To Hear It Bounce.
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Cliffs
I Was Young And Not Gloomy And There Were Always Strange And Comic Things That Happened In The Worst Time.
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The Further You Go In Writing The More Alone You Are.
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Why Did They Make Birds So Delicate And Fine As Those Sea Swallows When The Ocean Can Be So Cruel?
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Sea
Bird
Now He Was Proving It Again. Each Time Was A New Time And He Never Thought About The Past When He Was Doing It.
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Prove
We're Always Lucky,' I Said And Like A Fool I Did Not Knock On Wood.
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Woods
Fool
There Is Nothing To Writing. All You Do Is Sit Down At A Typewriter And Bleed.
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Bad Ass
Typewriters
How Little We Know Of What There Is To Know. I Wish That I Were Going To Live A Long Time Instead Of Going To Die Today Because I Have Learned Much About Life In These Four Days; More, I Think Than In All Other Time. I'd Like To Be An Old Man To Really Know. I Wonder If You Keep On Learning Or If There Is Only A Certain Amount Each Man Can Understand. I Thought I Knew So Many Things That I Know Nothing Of. I Wish There Was More Time.
Men
Thinking
Long
There Are Only Three Sports: Bullfighting, Motor Racing, And Mountaineering; All The Rest Are Merely Games.
Sports
Motor Racing
Games
Everything Is On Such A Clear Financial Basis In France. It Is The Simplest Country To Live In. No One Makes Things Complicated By Becoming Your Friend For Any Obscure Reason. If You Want People To Like You You Have Only To Spend A Little Money. I Spent A Little Money And The Waiter Liked Me. He Appreciated My Valuable Qualities. He Would Be Glad To See Me, And Would Want Me At His Table. It Would Be A Sincere Liking Because It Would Have A Sound Basis. I Was Back In France.
Country
People
Quality
Your Blood Coagulates Beautifully.
Blood
There Is No Night Life In Spain. They Stay Up Late But They Get Up Late. That Is Not Night Life. That Is Delaying The Day. Night Life Is When You Get Up With A Hangover In The Morning. Night Life Is When Everybody Says What The Hell And You Do Not Remember Who Paid The Bill. Night Life Goes Round And Round And You Look At The Wall To Make It Stop. Night Life Comes Out Of A Bottle And Goes Into A Jar. If You Think How Much Are The Drinks It Is Not Night Life.
Morning
Wall
Hangover
I Drink To Make Other People More Interesting.
Funny
Life
Drinking
When I Have An Idea, I Turn Down The Flame, As If It Were A Little Alcohol Stove, As Low As It Will Go. Then It Explodes And That Is My Idea.
Flames
Ideas
Funny Sarcastic
His (the Writer's) Standard Of Fidelity To The Truth Should Be So High That His Invention, Out Of His Experience, Should Produce A Truer Account Than Anything Factual Can Be.
Fidelity
Invention
Should
But Did Thee Feel The Earth Move?
Moving
Tolls
Earth
He Remembered Poor Julian [actually F. Scott Fitzgerald] And His Romantic Awe Of Them And How He Had Started A Story Once That Began, "the Very Rich Are Different From You And Me." And How Someone Had Said To Julian, "yes, They Have More Money."
Money
Scott Fitzgerald
Different
Take A Good Rest, Small Bird," He Said. "then Go In And Take Your Chance Like Any Man Or Bird Or Fish.
Men
Bird
Chance
Now I Am Depressed Myself,' I Said. 'that's Why I Never Think About These Things. I Never Think And Yet When I Begin To Talk I Say The Things I Have Found Out In My Mind Without Thinking.
Thinking
Mind
Found
To Be A Successful Father... There's One Absolute Rule: When You Have A Kid, Don't Look At It For The First Two Years.
Funny
Fathers Day
Dad
My Heart's Broken,' He Thought. 'if I Feel This Way My Heart Must Be Broken.
Heart
Broken
Way
Bullfighting Is The Only Art In Which The Artist Is In Danger Of Death And In Which The Degree Of Brilliance In The Performance Is Left To The Fighter's Honor.
Death
Art
Honor
Eschew The Monumental. Shun The Epic. All The Guys Who Can Paint Great Big Pictures Can Paint Great Small Ones.
Pain
Writing
Epic
Never Delay Kissing A Pretty Girl Or Opening A Bottle Of Whiskey
Girl
Kissing
Bottles
He Knew He Would Not Be Afraid. Even If He Ever Was Afraid He Knew That He Could Do It Anyway.
Ifs
They Say The Seeds Of What We Will Do Are In All Of Us, But It Always Seemed To Me That In Those Who Make Jokes In Life The Seeds Are Covered With Better Soil And With A Higher Grade Of Manure.
Life
Soil
Moveable Feast
Anyone Can Be A Fisherman In May.
May
Fisherman
I Have Noticed That Doctors Who Fail In The Practice Of Medicine Have A Tendency To Seek One Another's Company And Aid In Consultation.
Doctors
Practice Of Medicine
Farewell To Arms
Often A Man Wishes To Be Alone And A Girl Wishes To Be Alone Too And If They Love Each Other They Are Jealous Of That In Each Other, But I Can Truly Say We Never Felt That. We Could Feel Alone When We Were Together, Alone Against The Others. But We Were Never Lonely And Never Afraid When We Were Together.
Girl
Lonely
Jealous
You're An Expatriate. You've Lost Touch With The Soil. You Get Precious. Fake European Standards Have Ruined You. You Drink Yourself To Death. You Become Obsessed By Sex. You Spend All Your Time Talking, Not Working. You Are An Expatriate, See? You Hang Around Cafts.
Sex
Talking
Fake
Madame, It Is An Old Word And Each One Takes It New And Wears It Out Himself. It Is A Word That Fills With Meaning As A Bladder With Air And The Meaning Goes Out Of It As Quickly. It May Be Punctured As A Bladder Is Punctured And Patched And Blown Up Again And If You Have Not Had It Does Not Exist For You. All People Talk Of It, But Those Who Have Had It Are Marked By It, And I Would Not Wish To Speak Of It Further Since Of All Things It Is The Most Ridiculous To Talk Of And Only Fools Go Through It Many Times.
Love
Air
People
Life Is Pain, So Live It Up While You Can.
Life
Pain
Live It Up
You Must Hold Hard To Life And Do It. But Life Is A Cheap Thing Beside A Man's Work. The Only Thing Is That You Need It. Hold It Tight.
Men
Needs
Life Is
Somebody Just Back Of You While You Are Fishing Is As Bad As Someone Looking Over Your Shoulder While You Write A Letter To Your Girl.
Girl
Writing
Hunting
Find What Gave You Emotion; What The Action Was That Gave You Excitement. Then Write It Down Making It Clear So That The Reader Can See It Too. Prose Is Architecture, Not Interior Decoration, And The Baroque Is Over.
Writing
Action
Emotion
The Only Decent Bone In Her Body Was Mine.
Body
Bones
Decent
It Is Good That We Do Not Have To Try To Kill The Sun Or The Moon Or The Stars. It Is Enough To Live On The Sea And Kill Our True Brothers.
Brother
Stars
Moon
Where A Man Feels At Home, Outside Of Where He’s Born, Is Where He’s Meant To Go.
Home
Men
Born
I Loved Her And I Loved No One Else And We Had A Lovely Magic Time While We Were Alone. I Worked Well And We Made Great Trips, And I Thought We Were Invulnerable Again, And It Wasn't Until We Were Out Of The Mountains In Late Spring, And Back In Paris, That The Other Thing Started Again.
Spring
Paris
Lovely
The Best Way Is To Read It All Every Day From The Start, Correcting As You Go Along, Then Go On From Where You Stopped The Day Before. When It Gets So Long That You Can't Do This Every Day Read Back Two Or Three Chapters Each Day; Then Each Week Read It All From The Start. That's How You Make It All Of One Piece.
Writing
Two
Long
The Most Beautiful Fighting Machine I Have Ever Seen
Beautiful
Fighting
Machines
For What Are We Born If Not To Aid One Another?
Aids
Born
Ifs
Write Drunk; Edit Sober.
Witty
Clever
Humorous
The House Was Built On The Highest Part Of The Narrow Tongue Of Land Between The Harbor And The Open Sea. It Had Lasted Through Three Hurricanes And It Was Built Solid As A Ship.
Sea
Land
House
Hesitation Increases In Relation To Risk In Equal Proportion To Age.
Birthday
Risk
Age
She Is Kind And Very Beautiful. But She Can Be So Cruel And It Comes So Suddenly And Such Birds That Fly, Dipping And Hunting, With Their Small Sad Voices Are Made Too Delicately For The Sea.
Beautiful
Hunting
Sea
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