It is He who has subdued the ocean so that you may eat of its fresh fish and bring up from its depth ornaments to wear. Behold the ships plowing their course through it. All this, that you may seek His bounty and render thanks.

Being thus arrived in good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stale earth, their proper element.

A fair complexion is unbecoming to a sailor: he ought to be swarthy from the waters of the sea and the rays of the sun.

The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.

In all the ancient states and empires, those who had the shipping, had the wealth.

The power which the sea requires in the sailor makes a man of him very fast, and the change of shores and population clears his head of much nonsense of his wigwam.

The sea receives us in a proper way only when we are without clothes.

I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast, for I intend to go in harm’s way.

Take back your golden fiddles, and we’ll beat to open sea.

Seafarers go to sleep in the evening not knowing whether they will find themselves at the bottom of the sea the next morning.

The sole business of a seaman onshore who has to go to sea again is to take as much pleasure as he can.

The Mediterranean has the colors of a mackerel, changeable I mean. You don’t always know if it is green or violet—you can’t even say it’s blue, because the next moment the changing light has taken on a tinge of pink or gray.

Alone, alone, all, all alone, / Alone on a wide, wide sea!