By Justin Cude
“A ship in harbor is safe — but that is not what ships are built for.” – John A. Shedd
Traveling along the Atlantic east coast, up Highway 13 through the small towns of Chesapeake Bay, I finished one of my current reads; Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea”. The trips initial crossing of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel aided the imagination in the minds fruition of this classics’ main setting; the sea. Needless to say, the tone was right and the book provided a plethora of wisdom and thought. Below I share with you a few of my favorite quotes from the read. Enjoy…
On preparation…
“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.”
On establishing your own image…
“I wish I could show him what sort of man I am. But then he would see the cramped hand… [bctt tweet=”Let him think I am more than I am and I will be so.”
On the human experience of endure…
“But man is not made for defeat, he said. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
On choice of thought…
“Don’t think old man,” he said aloud. Sail on this course and take it when it comes. But I must think, he thought. Because it is all I have left.”
On perspective of situation…
“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”
On the now…
“He was a fish to keep a man all winter, he thought. Don’t think of that. Just rest and try to get your hands in shape to defend what is left of him.”
On illusion…
“What can I think of now? he thought. Nothing. I must think of nothing and wait for the next ones. I wish it had really been a dream, he thought. But who knows? It might have turned out well.”
On being the captain of your own fate…
“It is easy when you are beaten, he thought. I never knew how easy it was. And what beat you, he thought. Nothing, he said aloud. I went out too far.”
The above quotes only lightly express the wisdom and thought one can extract from the reading of this book. Furthermore, the beauty of reading provides us the opportunity to pull from a book what is unique, wanted or needed according to ones life. If you have read it, or choose to in the future, please let me know what you think, along with sharing with me your favorite quotes in the comment section below!
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