sparknotes
A Farewell to Arms
Important Quotations Explained
1. “There,
darling. Now you’re all clean inside and out. Tell me. How many
people have you ever loved?”
“Nobody.”
“Not even me?”
“Yes, you.”
“How many others really?”
“None.”
“How many have you—how do you say it?—stayed with?”
“None.”
“You’re lying to me.”
“Yes.”
“It’s all right. Keep right on lying to me. That’s
what I want you to do. Were they pretty?”
2. I
had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no
glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if
nothing was done with the meat except to bury it. There were many
words that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names
of places had dignity. Certain numbers were the same way and certain
dates and these with the names of the places were all you could
say and have them mean anything. Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage,
or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the
numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments
and the dates.
3. When
we were out past the tanneries onto the main road the troops, the
motor trucks, the horse-drawn carts and the guns were in one wide
slow-moving column. We moved slowly but steadily in the rain, the
radiator cap of our car almost against the tailboard of a truck
that was loaded high, the load covered with wet canvas. Then the
truck stopped. The whole column was stopped. It started again and
we went a little farther, then stopped. I got out and walked ahead,
going between the trucks and carts and under the wet necks of the
horses.
4. But we
were never lonely and never afraid when we were together. I know
that the night is not the same as the day: that all things are different,
that the things of the night cannot be explained in the day, because
they do not then exist, and the night can be a dreadful time for
lonely people once their loneliness has started. But with Catherine
there was almost no difference in the night except that it was an even
better time. If people bring so much courage to this world the world
has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The
world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken
places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very
good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you
are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there
will be no special hurry.
5. Poor,
poor dear Cat. And this was the price you paid for sleeping together.
This was the end of the trap. This was what people got for loving
each other. Thank God for gas, anyway. What must it have been like
before there were anesthetics?








