The Old Man and the Sea Quotes
Shmoop will make you a better lover...of quotes
ALL QUOTES POPULAR BROWSE BY AUTHOR BROWSE BY SOURCE BROWSE BY TOPIC BROWSE BY SUBJECT
Source: The Old Man and the Sea
Author: Ernest Hemingway
"He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish."
He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.
Context
The book is called The Old Man and the Sea. And the first line tells us about an old man and the sea. How novel.
This is the first line of the story and our first introduction to the old man of the book's namesake. All we know at this point is that he's fishing somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean and is either not very good at it or just really unlucky.
Where you've heard it
If anyone starts telling you this story, you might want to sit down. It's about the length of a short novel.
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
Like the old man himself, this quote is about as humble as it gets.