The legislator is like the navigator of a ship on the high seas. He can steer the vessel on which he sails, but he cannot alter its construction, raise the wind, or stop the waves from swelling beneath his feet.

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

The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.

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.

Being thus arrived in good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stale earth, their proper element.

Alone, alone, all, all alone, / Alone on a wide, wide sea!

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.

The wonderful sea charmed me from the first.

The sea hath fish for every man.

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

The life of a sailor is very unhealthy.

The bathing was so delightful this morning, and Molly so pressing with me to enjoy myself, that I believe I stayed in rather too long, as since the middle of the day I have felt unreasonably tired. I shall be more careful another time, and shall not bathe tomorrow as I had before intended.