Excerpt from The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

It was dark now as it becomes dark quickly after the sun sets in September.  He lay against the worn wood of the bow and rested all that he could.  The first stars were out.  He did not know the name of Rigel but he saw it and knew soon they would all be out and he would have all his distant friends.


"The fish is my friend too," he said aloud.  "I have never seen or heard of such a fish.  But I must kill him.  I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars."


Imagine if each day a man must try to kill the moon, he thought.  The moon runs away.  But imagine if a man each day should have to try to kill the sun?  We were born lucky; he thought.


Then we was sorry for the great fish that had nothing to eat and his determination to kill him never relaxed in his sorrow for him.  How many people will he feed, he thought.  But are they worthy to eat him?  No, of course not.  There is no one worthy of eating him from the manner of his behaviour and his great dignity.


I do not understand these things, he thought.  But 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.