Life is so damned hard, so damned hard... It just hurts people and hurts people, until finally it hurts them so that they can't be hurt ever any more. That's the last and worst thing it does.

but they were frightened at his survivant will, once a will to live, now become a will to die.

The bar is in full swing, and floating rounds of cocktails permeate the garden outside, until the air is alivewith chatter and laughter, and casual innuendo and introductions forgotten on the spot, and enthusiastic meetings between women who never knew each other’s names.

The unwelcome November rain had perversely stolen the day's last hour and pawned it with that ancient fence, the night.

At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.

sometimes i wish i'd been an englishman; american life is so damned dumb and stupid and healthy

So he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little while the deep happiness.