The Old Man and the Sea

by Ernest Hemingway

They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.

There are three things that are brothers: the fish and my two hands.

Man is not much beside the great birds and beasts. Still I would rather be that beast down there in the darkness of the sea.

But I was more intelligent than he was. Perhaps not, he thought. Perhaps I was only better armed.

Besides, he thought, everything kills everything else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive.