Along the coast of the vast Atlantic ocean there lived an old man. Each day when the tide went out he would make his way along the beach for miles. Another man who lived not far away would occasionally watch as he vanished into the distance and later notice that he had returned. The neighbor also noticed that, as he walked, the old man would often stoop down to lift something from the sand and then toss it away into the water.

One day, when the old man went down to the beach this neighbor followed to satisfy his curiosity and, sure enough, as he watched, the old man bent down and gently lifted something from the sand and threw it into the ocean. By the time the old man made his next stop the neighbor had come near enough to see that he was picking up a starfish which had been stranded by the retreating tide and would, of course, die of dehydration before the tide returned. As the old man turned to return to the ocean the neighbor called out with a degree of mockery in his voice, "Hey, old timer! What are you doing? This beach goes on for hundreds of miles, and thousands of starfish get washed up every day! Surely you don't think that throwing a few back is going to matter."

The old man listened and paused for a moment, then held the starfish in his hand out toward his neighbor. "It matters to this on."

在廣闊的大西洋海岸住著一位老人。每天當潮水退去后他都會沿著海岸線走上很遠。不遠處住著另外一個人，他偶爾也會注視著這個老人消失在遠處，然后又看著老人回來。這個鄰居發現，老人走著的時候會經常彎下腰從沙灘上揀起什么東西拋到海里。

一天，當老人又一次沿著海岸線走的時候，這個鄰居跟在后面看看老人到底在干什么來滿足自己的好奇心。他看到老人彎下腰輕輕地從沙灘上揀起什么東西又扔進了大海。當老人再次停下來時，這個鄰居走上前一看，原來老人正在揀起一只被潮水沖到岸上的海星，這只海星在海水再次到來之前就會脫水而死。當老人返回的時候，這個鄰居用一種嘲弄的口吻叫住他：“嘿，老家伙!你在做什么?這個海灘有數百英里長，每天都會有成千上萬只海星沖上岸!你不知道你這樣做實在是沒什么意義嗎?”

老人聽完停了一會，把手中的那只海星拿到鄰居眼前說：“對這只來說有意義。”