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.

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

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

Of 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.

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.

Ashore it’s wine, women, and song; aboard it’s rum, bum, and concertina.

As to the sea itself, love it you cannot. Why should you? I will never believe again the sea was ever loved by anyone whose life was married to it. It is the creation of omnipotence, which is not of humankind and understandable, and so the springs of its behavior are hidden.

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

The wonderful sea charmed me from the first.

Be 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.

The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.

But 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.

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