Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
—Publilius Syrus, c. 30 BCQuotes
What will not attract a man’s stare at sea?—a gull, a turtle, a flying fish!
—Richard Burton, 1883You 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. 1670I 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, 1778And to our age’s drowsy blood / Still shouts the inspiring sea.
—James Russell Lowell, 1848The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.
—James Joyce, 1922Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so shall you come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1838The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
—Edward Gibbon, 1788He who commands the sea has command of everything.
—Francis Bacon, c. 1600Seafarers go to sleep in the evening not knowing whether they will find themselves at the bottom of the sea the next morning.
—Jean de Joinville, c. 1305The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1870I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.
—Anaïs Nin, 1950The 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