Wisdom from Hemingway..

I guess I got my love and fascination of quotations from my Mother, and her side of the family. I guess the Welsh are a little more sensitive and thoughtful than their Celtic cousins merely across the straits.. In any case, I enjoy delving into the myriad of meanings that these quotes provide, and how they apply to me at differing periods of my life. So, today we ponder Hemingway...



Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated.

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 of the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them.

Anyone can be a fisherman in May.

Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows when the ocean can be so cruel? 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.

Fish, I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.

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.

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?

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.

A man can be destroyed but not defeated.

Ernest Hemingway from The Old man and the Sea