I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.
—Anaïs Nin, 1950Quotes
Alone, alone, all, all alone, / Alone on a wide, wide sea!
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1798We are as near to heaven by sea as by land!
—Humphrey Gilbert, 1583But look, our seas are what we make of them, full of fish or not, opaque or transparent, red or black, high or smooth, narrow or bankless—and we are ourselves sea, sand, coral, seaweed, beaches, tides, swimmers, children, waves.
—Hélène Cixous, 1976We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea—whether it is to sail or to watch it—we are going back whence we came.
—John F. Kennedy, 1962In all the ancient states and empires, those who had the shipping, had the wealth.
—William Petty, 1690What will not attract a man’s stare at sea?—a gull, a turtle, a flying fish!
—Richard Burton, 1883Of all objects that I have ever seen, there is none which affects my imagination so much as the sea or ocean. A troubled ocean, to a man who sails upon it, is, I think, the biggest object that he can see in motion, and consequently gives his imagination one of the highest kinds of pleasure that can arise from greatness.
—Joseph Addison, 1712All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full.
—Book of Ecclesiastes, c. 250 BCA fair complexion is unbecoming to a sailor: he ought to be swarthy from the waters of the sea and the rays of the sun.
—Ovid, c. 1 BCHe that commands the sea is at great liberty and may take as much and as little of the war as he will.
—Francis Bacon, c. 1600I 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, 1778The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.
—James Joyce, 1922