The Sharks Quotes

“All sailors are afraid of the sea. They know what it is.”
― Jens Bjørneboe, The Sharks

“Of course I'd been long enough on land to know earthly love, and it had always ended in a battle, in each wanting to be the stronger, the superior in the relation. It is commonly called 'the battle of the sexes,' but I don't know if that is the right term. In truth it's a question of a power struggle, of a battle not to lose oneself, to maintain one's sovereignty — one's property rights. Only the very strong can live with no fear of losing their autonomy. Still, this is the precondition for loving: not to want power — not to want to own someone.
There can be talk of love only when one gives up one's self-assertion, when one lays down arms and capitulates fully. When one no longer defends oneself. Love is the absolute yielding, the total surrender – unconditionally. It knows no reservations, no defense. Love creates no need to be the strongest; it knows no lust for power, no personality struggle. Love is pure devotion, absolute self-surrender. Only one who is strong enough not to fear losing his personality can love. To love, one must be able to forsake oneself, to make the other free. And it is this which we're not strong enough to do.”
― Jens Bjørneboe, The Sharks

“...the emperor had the poor under control, and poverty could continue to serve its purpose – as a precondition for wealth.”
― Jens Bjørneboe, The Sharks

“It is deeps such as these that we have beneath our keel after putting out to sea from the Philippines: the world of mystery, of the fathomless, the irrational. If the ocean surface, in savagery and rebellion, in calm and storm, resembles human feelings—that sea on which we sail our little ships of reason and consciousness, in the violent but known world of the emotions — then the great deeps, the ocean's dark abysses, resemble the human heart's unknown, never-visited worlds: the inscrutable, inaccessible, night-dark, soundless underworld of the soul.”
― Jens Bjørneboe, The Sharks

“Var det virkelig sant at det å hjelpe et menneske, forpliktet til fortsatt hjelp? Var det sant at uavhengighet er en illusjon, og at det å røre ved et annet menneskes skjebne, binder oss fast i avhengighet av hverandre? Var det slik at ved enhver handling overfor mennesker vikler vi oss mere og mere inn i et usynlig nett av skjebne?
Hvis det var sant, og man nektet å bære konsekvensene av hva man gjør overfor andre, ville alle våre gjerninger - selv de beste - være en uforpliktende lek med menneskeskjebner. Med andre ord: Man kan ikke gi en del av seg selv; man må gi alt. Og intet vente igjen.”
― Jens Bjørneboe, The Sharks

“In the third mate's eyes I had thus destroyed his 'prestige' – or what he though was his dignity. The result was this deep, ridiculous, feeble-minded hatred.
The world is full of such dumb, idiotic hate.”
― Jens Bjørneboe, The Sharks