The Old Man and the Sea Quotes - Page 2 | Just Great DataBase

The fish is my friend too," he said aloud. "I have never seen or heard of such a fish. But I must kill him. I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars.

Then he was sorry for the great fish... How many people will he feed?.. But are they worthy to eat him? No, of course, not. There is no one worthy of eating him from the manner of his behavior and his great dignity.

Thank you, the old man said. He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride.

This is the second day now that I do not know the result of the juegos he thought. But I must have confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel.

Where did you wash? the boy thought. The village water supply was two streets down the road. I must have water here for him, the boy thought, and soap and a good towel. Why am I so thoughtless? I must get him another shirt and a jacket for the winter and some sort of shoes and another blanket.

He spat into the ocean and said, Eat that, galanos. And make a dream you’ve killed a man.

I shouldn’t have gone out so far, fish, he said. Neither for you nor for me. I’m sorry, fish.

But man is not made for defeat, he said. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.

The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.

The setting of the sun is a difficult time for all fish.

It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.

The old man's head was clear and good now and he was full of resolution but he had little hope. It was too good to last, he thought. He took one look at the great fish as he watched the shark close in.

He can't have gone, he said "Christ know he can't have gone. He's making a turn. Maybe he has been hooked before and her remembers something of it." The he felt the gentle touch on the line and he was happy.

Then he began to pity the great fish that he had hooked. He is wonderful and strange and who knows how old he is, he thought.

Age is my alarm clock, the old man said. Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?

Besides, he thought, everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive.

I wish I had the boy.

First you borrow, then you beg.

It is easy when you are beaten, he thought. I never knew how easy it was.

I'll kill him though,' he said. 'In all his greatness and his glory.

Now you are getting confused in the head, he thought. You must keep your head clear. Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man. Or a fish, he thought.

He took the bait like a male and he pulls like a male and his fight has no panic in it. I wonder if he has any plans or if he is just as desperate as I sin?

But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.

The purple, formalized, iridescent, gelatinous bladder of a Portuguese man-of-war was floating close beside the boat. It turned on its side and then righted itself. It floated cheerfully as a bubble with its long deadly purple filaments trailing a yard behind in the water.

Damn my fish,' the boy said and he started to cry again.

And pain does not matter to a man.

If the others heard me talking out loud they would think that I am crazy," he said aloud.

I told the boy I was a strange old man, he said. Now is when I must prove it. The thousand times that he had proved it meant nothing. Now he was proving it again.

But now he said his thoughts aloud many times since there was no one that they could annoy.

It is not bad, he said. And pain does not matter to a man.

You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman. You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more?

He looked at the sky and saw the white cumulus built like friendly piles of ice cream and high above were the thin feathers of the cirrus against the high September sky.

They would hit a man in the water, if they were hungry, even if the man had no smell of fish blood nor of fish slime on him.Ay, the old man said. Galanos. Come on galanos.

You did not do so badly for something worthless,' he said to his left hand. 'But there was a moment where I could not find you.

He could see the fish and he had only to look at his hands and feel his back against the stern to know that this had truly happened and was not a dream.

I must hold his pain where it is, he thought. Mine does not matter. I can control mine. But his pain could drive him mad.

You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more? 'You think too much, old man' he said aloud.

The dentuso is cruel and able and strong and intelligent. But I was more intelligent than he was. Perhaps not, he thought. Perhaps I was only better armed.

The old man drank his coffee slowly. It was all he would have all day and he knew that he should take it. For a long time now eating had bored him and he never carried a lunch.

Up the road, in his shack, the old man was sleeping again. He was still sleeping on his face and the boy was sitting by him watching him. The old man was dreaming about the lions.

You bought me a beer, the old man said. You are already a man.

But I try not to borrow. First you borrow. Then you beg.

I told the boy I was a strange old man, he said. Now is when I must prove it.

Man is not much beside the great birds and beasts.

It was considered a virtue not to talk unnecessarily at sea and the old man had always considered it so and respected it.

But, thank God, they are not as intelligent as we who kill them; although they are more noble and more able.

You did not do so badly for something worthless,' he said to his left hand. 'But there was a moment when I could not find you.

He always thought of the sea as la mar which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman.

But in the dark now and no glow showing and no lights and only the wind and the steady pull of the sail he felt that perhaps he was already dead. He put his two hands together and felt the palms. They were not dead and he could bring the pain of life by simply opening and closing them. He leaned his back against the stern and knew he was not dead. His shoulders told him.

Man is not much beside the great birds and beasts. Still I would rather be that beast down there in the darkness of the sea.