The Old Man and the Sea Pride Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Day.Paragraph). We artificially created chapters by defining "days," because there are no chapter breaks in The Old Man and the Sea. Here’s how we divided up the days:
  • Day 1 = the start of the book until the old man falls asleep for the night
  • Day 2 = begins when the old man wakes up and goes until sunrise of the next day
  • Day 3 = begins at sunrise and goes until the old man dreams about the lions
  • Day 4 = begins when the old man wakes and ends when the old man gets back to his shack for the night
  • Day 5 = begins with the boy seeing the old man in the morning and goes until the end of the book

Quote #1

"Thank you," the old man said. He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility. But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride. (1.36)

In The Old Man and the Sea, we see that pride and humility are not mutually exclusive.

Quote #2

"Who gave this to you?"

"Martin. The owner." "I must thank him."

"I thanked him already," the boy said. "You don’t need to thank him." "I’ll give him the belly meat of a big fish," the old man said. "Has he done this for us more than once?"

"I think so."

"I must give him something more than the belly meat then. He is very thoughtful for us." (1.99-1.105)

The old man is not too proud to accept help from others.

Quote #3

"And the best fisherman is you."

"No. I know others better." (1.134, 1.135)

The old man is humble about his abilities.