Archive

Quotes

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

—Rudyard Kipling, 1892

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.

—Publilius Syrus, c. 30 BC

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

—William Petty, 1690

The sea hath fish for every man.

—William Camden, 1605

We are as near to heaven by sea as by land!

—Humphrey Gilbert, 1583

Many, many steeples would have to be stacked one on top of another to reach from the bottom to the surface of the sea. It is down there that the sea folk live.

—Hans Christian Andersen, 1837

Never trust her at any time when the calm sea shows her false alluring smile.

—Lucretius, c. 60 BC

Seamen are the nearest to death and the furthest from God.

—Thomas Fuller, 1732

Why is a ship under sail more poetical than a hog in a high wind? The hog is all nature, the ship is all art.

—Lord Byron, 1821

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

—John Paul Jones, 1778

The bathing was so delightful this morning, and Molly so pressing with me to enjoy myself, that I believe I stayed in rather too long, as since the middle of the day I have felt unreasonably tired. I shall be more careful another time, and shall not bathe tomorrow as I had before intended.

—Jane Austen, 1804

As to the sea itself, love it you cannot. Why should you? I will never believe again the sea was ever loved by anyone whose life was married to it. It is the creation of omnipotence, which is not of humankind and understandable, and so the springs of its behavior are hidden.

—H.M. Tomlinson, 1912

The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

—Edward Gibbon, 1788