Archive

Quotes

Seaward ho! Hang the treasure! It’s the glory of the sea that has turned my head.

—Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883

All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full.

—Book of Ecclesiastes, c. 250 BC

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.

—Publilius Syrus, c. 30 BC

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

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

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

The sea hath no king but God alone.

—Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1881

He who commands the sea has command of everything.

—Francis Bacon, c. 1600

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 breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.

—Vladimir Nabokov, 1941

You never enjoy the world aright, till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars.

—Thomas Traherne, c. 1670

The wonderful sea charmed me from the first.

—Joshua Slocum, 1900

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

—Leigh Hunt, 1820