Ernest Hemingway quotes
1899 – 1961 · United States, 20th century · Novelist, short‑story writer
About Ernest Hemingway
Born 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois; died 1961 in Ketchum, Idaho. Hemingway reshaped American prose with spare, understated language often called his 'iceberg theory.' His work treats war, courage, love and the human condition.
Works: The Sun Also Rises; A Farewell to Arms; For Whom the Bell Tolls; The Old Man and the Sea
Quotes
“The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.”
Source: no specific work is documented · Check the source
MisattributedWhat we know
- What is documented
- Sources show the line is commonly claimed to be from Men Without Women but it does not appear there; no verified primary source has been documented.
- What remains uncertain
- Scholars and reference sites mark the quote as apocryphal or misattributed; it may trace to a 2011 blog post rather than Hemingway.
The line warns that loving someone too much can erase your sense of self and stresses the need to keep your own worth. It is widely attributed to Ernest Hemingway online, but that attribution is disputed and no primary-source match in his works has been found.