The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway, is about an old fisherman on the coast of Cuba named Santiago.
Santiago hasn’t been able to catch a fish for 84 days.
His apprentice, Manolin, continues to help him despite his parents telling him to work for another fisherman.
On the 85th day, Santiago goes a little farther out to sea.
Santiago catches a large marlin on his line, but it’s too big to pull in. The marlin pulls him farther from the land.
Although Santiago develops a friendship with the marlin, he’s determined to kill it and bring it home.
The Old Man and the Sea Quotes With Page Numbers
“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.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Pages 13, 14
“Have faith in the Yankees my son. Think of the great DiMaggio.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Page 17
“I think perhaps I can too.
But I try not to borrow.
First you borrow. Then you beg.”~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Page 18
“The old man opened his eyes and for a moment he was coming back from a long way away. Then he smiled.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago, Page 19
“I may not be as stong as I think,… but I know many tricks and I have resolution.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago. Page 23
“Why do old men wake so early? Is it to have one longer day?”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Page 24
“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, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago, Page 25
“Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel?”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator, Page 29
“She is kind and very beautiful. But she can be so cruel and it comes so suddenly and such birds that fly, dipping and hunting, with their small sad voices are made too delicately for the sea.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about the ocean, Page 29
“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, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago, Pages 29, 30
“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, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator, Page 32
“It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator, Page 32
“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, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator, Page 32
“My big fish must be somewhere.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator, Page 35
“Most people are 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, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about turtles, Page 37
“It was considered a virtue not to talk unnecessarily at sea…”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago and the boy, Page 39
“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, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Page 39
“He did not say that because he knew that if you said a good thing it might not happen.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago, Page 43
“He rested sitting on the un-stepped mast and sail and tried not to think but only to endure.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago, Page 46
“No one should be alone in their old age, he thought.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago, Page 48
“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, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago, Pages 48, 49
“I wonder if he has any plans or if he is just as desperate as I am?”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago’s thoughts, Page 49
“His choice had been to stay in the deep dark water far out beyond all snares and traps and treacheries. My choice was to go there to find him beyond all people. Beyond all people in the world. Now we are joined together and have been since noon. And no one to help either one of us.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about the Marlin, Page 50
“Perhaps I should not have been a fisherman, he thought. But that was the thing that I was born for.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago’s thoughts, Page 50
“Fish,” he said softly, aloud, “I’ll stay with you until I am dead.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Page 52
“Fish,” he said, “I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Page 54
“Take a good rest, small bird,” he said. “Then go in and take your chance like any man or bird or fish.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Page 55
“Be patient, hand,” he said. “I do this for you.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Page 59
“He looked across the sea and knew how alone he was now. But he could see the prisms in the deep dark water and the line stretching ahead and the strange undulation of the calm. The clouds were building up now for the trade wind and he looked ahead and saw a flight of wild ducks etching themselves against the sky over the water, then blurring, then etching again and he knew no man was ever alone on the sea.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago, Pages 60, 61
“The clouds were building up now for the trade wind and he looked ahead and saw a flight of wild ducks etching themselves against the sky over the water, then blurring, then etching again and he knew no man was ever alone on the sea.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator, Pages 60, 61
“I hate a cramp, he thought. It is a treachery of one’s own body.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago’s thoughts, Pages 61, 62
“But, thank God, [the fish] are not as intelligent as we who kill them; although they are more noble and more able.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago’s thoughts, Page 63
“Let him think that I am more man than I am and I will be so.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago’s thoughts, Page 64
“Now he was proving it again. Each time was a new time and he never thought about the past when he was doing it.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago, Page 66
“Just before it was dark, as they passed a great island of Sargasso weed that heaved and swung in the light sea as though the ocean were making love with something under a yellow blanket, his small line was taken by a dolphin. He saw it first when it jumped in the air, true gold in the last of the sun and bending and flapping wildly in the air.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator, Page 72
“The fish is my friend too… 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. But imagine if a man each day should have to try to kill the sun? We were born lucky; he thought”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Page 75
“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, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago’s thoughts, Page 75
“Fish,” the old man said. “Fish, you are going to have to die anyway. Do you have to kill me too?”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago to the Marlin, Page 92
“But I think the Great DiMaggio would be proud of me today.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago. Page 97
“Man is not made for defeat.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Page 103
“But man is not made for defeat,” he said. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Page 103
“It is silly not to hope. It’s a sin he thought.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago’s thoughts, Pages 104, 105
“Do not think about sin, he thought. There are enough problems now without sin. Also I have no understanding of it.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago’s thoughts, Page 105
“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, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago’s thoughts, Page 105
“Besides, he thought, everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago’s thoughts, Page 106
“Now is no time to think of what you do not have.
Think of what you can do with that there is”~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago’s thoughts, Page 110
“Half fish,” he said. “Fish that you were. I am sorry that I went too far out. I ruined us both. But we have killed many sharks, you and I, and ruined many others. How many did you ever kill, old fish? You do not have that spear on your head for nothing.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Page 115
“Luck is a thing that comes in many forms and who can recognize her?”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago’s thoughts, Page 117
“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, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago’s thoughts, Page 120
“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.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: The Narrator about Santiago, Page 127
What is the best 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, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Page 103
But man is not made for defeat page number.
This quote by Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea is on page 103. It means that failing doesn’t make you a failure as long as you don’t give up on your goals
What is the quote from The Old Man and the Sea about not giving up?
“Fish,” he said softly, aloud, “I’ll stay with you until I am dead.”
~Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Character: Santiago, Page 52
The Old Man And The Sea Summary
“The Old Man and the Sea,” tells the story of an aging Cuban fisherman who persists in going to sea to fish despite his advanced age and failing health.
His determination and endurance are ultimately rewarded when he catches a giant marlin. Although he cannot bring the fish back to shore, the old man’s journey is a triumph of the human spirit.
The book is a classic tale of courage and determination in adversity. The old man’s struggle against the elements and his own failing body is an inspiring story of the human will to persevere.
The Best Book Quotes With Page Numbers
Sources