“It could be worse,' Passini said respectfully. "There is nothing worse than war." Defeat is worse." I do not believe it," Passini said still respectfully. "What is defeat? You go home.”
“But man is not made for defeat," he said. "A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
“Later he had seen the things that he could never think of and later still he had seen much worse.”
“Fish," he said, "I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.”
“A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”
“Then there is the other secret. There isn't any symbolysm [sic]. The sea is the sea. The old man is an old man. The boy is a boy and the fish is a fish. The shark are all sharks no better and no worse. All the symbolism that people say is shit. What goes beyond is what you see beyond when you know.”
“I don't know. I only think the Austrians will not stop when they have won a victory. It is in defeat that we become Christian.""The Austrians are Christians-- except for the Bosnians.""I don't mean technically Christian. I mean like Our Lord."He said nothing."We are all gentler now because we are beaten. How would our Lord have been f Peter had rescued him in the Garden?”