The remark suggests that life can become simpler when a person no longer has anything they fear losing. Possessions, relationships, ambitions and expectations create responsibilities and vulnerabilities because they give people something to protect. Once those attachments are removed, choices may appear easier because the possible consequences carry less personal cost.

In A Farewell to Arms, this idea belongs to a wider treatment of war, uncertainty and loss. The novel repeatedly shows how circumstances beyond individual control can destroy plans and attachments. The line therefore carries both a sense of freedom and a darker implication: having nothing to lose may remove fear, but only because something valuable has already been lost or abandoned. It does not present detachment as uncomplicated happiness. Instead, it observes that vulnerability often accompanies caring about people or outcomes, while extreme loss can produce a severe form of independence in which fewer risks remain meaningful.