For Whom the Bell Tolls Friendship Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

As they went up the hill in the dark, the wind at their backs, the storm blowing past them as they climbed, Anselmo did not feel lonely. He had not been lonely since the Ingles had clapped him on the shoulder. The Ingles was pleased and happy and they joked together. The Ingles said it all went well and he was not worried. The drink in his stomach warmed him and his feet were warming now climbing.

"Not much on the road," he said to the Ingles.

"Good," the Ingles told him. "You will show me when we get there."

Caring about Robert Jordan, and wanting to do his best for him, was a large part of what motivated Anselmo to stay out in the storm. This was more important in his motivation than an abstract sense of duty. It's Robert Jordan's warmth which makes him glad that he did stay. Their camaraderie also makes fear recede into the background.

Quote #8

"Nay," she put her hand on his shoulder. "Thou hast no fear to catch. I know that. I am sorry I joked too roughly with thee. We are all in the same caldron." (24.90)

Pilar likes to mock men for not being manly enough, especially if they're cowardly (see "Men and Masculinity"). But here she makes a rather different gesture to Primitivo, taking back what she said to him, which apparently hurt. Beneath all the macho posturing and, at times, rough humor, they're all "in the same caldron," and it's to be expected that each of them will be afraid. That can become a point of connection.

Quote #9

Educated, he thought. I have the very smallest beginnings of an education. The very small beginnings. If I die on this day it is a waste because I know a few things now. I wonder if you only learn them now because you are oversensitized because of the shortness of time. There is no such thing as a shortness of time, though. You should have sense enough to know that too. I have been all my life in these hills since I have been here. Anselmo is my oldest friend. I know him better than I know Charles, than I know Chub, than I know Guy, than I know Mike, and I know them well. Agustín, with his vile mouth, is my brother, and I never had a brother. Maria is my true love and my wife. I never had a true love. I never had a wife. She is also my sister, and I never had a sister, and my daughter, and I never will have a daughter. I hate to leave a thing that is so good. (37.36)

Robert Jordan's barely had any time to get to know the people around him, and yet he knows them better than anyone else. He comes back again and again to the idea that length of time doesn't matter – you can live more in three days than in all that came before. His "new" friends have become his old family. It's his relationships that have made him start to care about his life, and "hate to leave" it for the first time.