Archive

Quotes

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.

—Ovid, c. 1 BC

The sea yields action to the body, meditation to the mind, the world to the world, all parts thereof to each part, by this art of arts—navigation.

—Samuel Purchas, 1613

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

—Zora Neale Hurston, 1937

I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.

—Anaïs Nin, 1950

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

I’ve been bathing in the poem / Of star-infused and milky sea / Devouring the azure greens.

—Arthur Rimbaud, 1871

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

He who travels by sea is nothing but a worm on a piece of wood, a trifle in the midst of a powerful creation. The waters play about with him at will, and no one but God can help him.

—Muhammad as-Saffar, 1846

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

—William Petty, 1690

The sea hath no king but God alone.

—Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1881

The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.

—Vladimir Nabokov, 1941

And to our age’s drowsy blood / Still shouts the inspiring sea.

—James Russell Lowell, 1848