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

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.

He that commands the sea is at great liberty and may take as much and as little of the war as he will.

The life of a sailor is very unhealthy.

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

The wonderful sea charmed me from the first.

The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.

The sea hath fish for every man.

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.

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

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

The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.

The Mediterranean has the colors of a mackerel, changeable I mean. You don’t always know if it is green or violet—you can’t even say it’s blue, because the next moment the changing light has taken on a tinge of pink or gray.