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.

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.

Perhaps as you went along you did learn something. I did not care what it was all about. All I wanted to know was how to live in it. Maybe if you found out how to live in it you learned from that what it was all about.

that every day should be a fiesta seemed to me a marvelous discovery

for all the poor in the world against all tyranny

When spring came, even false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits

There are only two places in the world where we can live happy: at home and in Paris.

Kad bih je barem kakvom lukavštinom mogao natjerati da se odluči, pomisli starac. Ona je odlučila ostati u dubokoj tamnoj vodi, daleko od svih zamki, obmana i lukavština. A ja sam odlučio da je upravo ja od svih ljudi potražim. Od svih ljudi na svijetu. I sad smo ovdje skupa, još od podne. I nikog nema da pomogne ni meni ni njoj. Možda nije trebalo da budem ribar, pomisli. Ali ja sam stvoren za to.

Strašna je ova ribetina, moram je obuzdati, pomisli. Ne smijem joj dopustiti da postane svjesna svoje snage ni onoga što bi mogla učiniti kad bi potegnula svom snagom. Da sam na njezinu mjestu, sad bih zapeo iz sve snage i povukao pa kud puklo da puklo. Ali one, hvala Bogu, nisu tako pametne ko mi koji ih ubijama, iako su plemenitije i sposobnije od nas.