Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.

Ships are the nearest thing to dreams that hands have ever made.

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.

Never in my life before have I experienced such beauty, and fear at the same time. Ten icebergs so far today ...

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.

Ships that pass in the night and speak each other in passing;
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another,
Only a look and a voice; then darkness again and a silence.

The sea finds out everything you did wrong.

Wind is to us what money is to life on shore.

If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most.

The cure for anything is saltwater sweat, tears, or the sea.

That's what a ship is, you know - it's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs. But what a ship is,... really is, is freedom.

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep.

The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient.
One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach - waiting for a gift from the sea.

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth;
whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul;
whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet... I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang and has no respect.

All of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea whether it is to sail or to watch it we are going back from whence we came.