Archive

Quotes

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

—Edward Gibbon, 1788

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.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1870

The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.

—Vladimir Nabokov, 1941

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

—Rudyard Kipling, 1892

I never even saw the use of the sea. Many a sad heart has it caused, and many a sick stomach has it occasioned! The boldest sailor climbs on board with a heavy soul and leaps on land with a light spirit.

—Benjamin Disraeli, 1827

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.

—The Qur’an, c. 625

Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.

—Zora Neale Hurston, 1937

I am ill every time it blows hard, and nothing but my enthusiastic love for the profession keeps me one hour at sea.

—Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1804

The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1870

Without a decisive naval force, we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.

—George Washington, 1781

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

—Thomas Fuller, 1732

The life of a sailor is very unhealthy.

—Francis Galton, 1883

The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.

—James Joyce, 1922