Quotes from The Old Man and the Sea

“Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“But man is not made for defeat," he said. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“Let him think that I am more man than I am and I will be so.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“Now is no time to think of what you do not have.
Think of what you can do with that there is”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“I may not be as stong as I think, but I know many tricks and I have resolution.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“Most people were heartless about turtles because a turtle’s heart will beat for hours after it has been cut up and butchered. But the old man thought, I have such a heart too.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“It's silly not to hope. It's a sin he thought.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“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. Some of the younger fishermen, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as 'el mar' which is masculine.They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. 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.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“If the others heard me talking out loud they would think that I am crazy. But since I am not, I do not care.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“It is good that we do not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. It is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“Luck is a thing that comes in many forms and who can recognize her?”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“Fish," he said softly, aloud, "I'll stay with you until I am dead.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought. 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?”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“No one should be alone in their old age, he thought.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“Fish," he said, "I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about the boy. He simply woke, looked out the open door at the moon and unrolled his trousers and put them on.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“And bed, he thought. Bed is my friend. Just bed, he thought. Bed will be a great thing. It is easy when you are beaten, he thought. I never knew how easy it was. And what beat you, the thought.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“My big fish must be somewhere.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel?”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“He remembered the time he had hooked one of a pair of marlin. The male fish always let the female fish feed first and the hooked fish, the female, made a wild, panic-stricken, despairing fight that soon exhausted her, and all the time the male had stayed with her, crossing the line and circling with her on the surface. He had stayed so close that the old man was afraid he would cut the line with his tail which was sharp as a scythe and almost of that size and shape. When the old man had gaffed her and clubbed her, holding the rapier bill with its sandpaper edge and clubbing her across the top of her head until her colour turned to a colour almost like the backing of mirrors, and then, with the boy’s aid, hoisted her aboard, the male fish had stayed by the side of the boat. Then, while the old man was clearing the lines and preparing the harpoon, the male fish jumped high into the air beside the boat to see where the female was and then went down deep, his lavender wings, that were his pectoral fins, spread wide and all his wide lavender stripes showing. He was beautiful, the old man remembered, and he had stayed.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“Do not think about sin, he thought. There are enough problems now without sin. Also I have no understanding of it.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“I hate a cramp, he thought. It is a treachery of one's own body.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“Take a good rest, small bird," he said. "Then go in and take your chance like any man or bird or fish.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“He rested sitting on the un-stepped mast and sail and tried not to think but only to endure.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“But, he thought, I keep them with precision. Only I have no luck anymore. But who knows? Maybe today. Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“Have faith in the Yankees my son. Think of the great DiMaggio.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

“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.” Imagine if each day a man must try to kill the moon, he thought. The moon runs away. . . . Then he was sorry for the great fish that had nothing to eat and his determination to kill him never relaxed in his sorrow for him. . . . There is no one worthy of eating him from the manner of his behavior and his great dignity. I do not understand these things, he thought. But it is good that we do not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. It is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brothers.”
― Ernest Hemingway, quote from The Old Man and the Sea

About the author

Popular quotes

“Secretiveness is a most mysterious matter. However well one guards a secret, sooner or later it’s bound to come out.”
― Natsume Sōseki, quote from I Am a Cat

“his first dawn without Willowbreeze. He could hardly believe the”
― Erin Hunter, quote from Crookedstar's Promise

“Gymnastes, Gargantua’ya düşmanın ardına düşmenin gerekli olup olmadığını sordu.
Gargantua şöyle karşılık verdi ona:
“Hiç gerekli değil, çünkü gerçek askerlik sanatı gereğince düşmanı umutsuzluğa düşürmemeliyiz; bıçak kemiğe dayandı mı, düşman yıpranıp tükenmekte olan gücünü ve yüreğini yeniden toparlayıverir. Hiçbir kurtuluş umudu kalmaması, bitmiş tükenmiş insanları diriltip kurtaracak olan ilaçların en iyisidir. Nice zaferler, yenenlerin elinden kaçıp yenilenlerin eline geçmiştir, çünkü yenenler hak ettikleri kadarıyla yetinmeyip her şeyi çiğneyip yok etmeye, düşmanlarını haber götürecek tek kişi bırakmamacasına öldürmeye kalkmışlardır! Düşmanlarınıza kapıları, yolları açın her zaman; hatta gümüşten bir köprü kurun onlara geçip gitmeleri için.”
― François Rabelais, quote from Gargantua

“Everything was like a business deal to him. Approach from different angles until you find one that works. "Go on then," I said, rolling my eyes. "Make your pitch. But remember, the clock is ticking." "Dinner." "Dinner? As in, the two of us?" He nodded. "That sounds dangerously close to a date," I replied. "Wouldn't that be breaking the rules?" He smiled ruefully. "Maybe, but I don't believe you've given me much choice." "Of course I have. You could just leave me alone instead." "I don't consider that an option at all.”
― Maya Cross, quote from Locked

“If you were to look on him fleetingly, to spare him only a passing glance, you would see only a man. If you looked a moment longer, you might get the feeling that there was something about him, something distinctly different. You might notice something peculiar about his eyes, might spot something strange about the tattoos running the length of his arms. Something out of place, something you cannot quite put your finger on….But to you, he still would be just a man.
But a clever eye…a clever eye could see him for what he truly is.
A clever eye would notice how his pupils taper at their tops and bottoms. A clever eye would see that his irises are no natural color. A clever eye would see that the patterns coiled on his arms, like blackened tongues of roiling flame, are not sunken into his skin like a tattoo’s Ink, but gently beveled at their edges — a part of his flesh. A clever eye could tell that, no, he is not just a man. Not just a Human.
He is a Majiski — one of my people.

-The Penitent God”
― S.G. Night, quote from Attrition: the First Act of Penance

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.