Nautical Quotes - Page 3

• Only the guy who isn't rowing has time to rock the boat.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Rocks, Guy, Sailing

  Jean-Paul Sartre (2012). “Essays in Aesthetics”, p.12, Open Road Media

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• No matter how important a man at sea may consider himself, unless he is fundamentally worthy the sea will some day find him out.

  Felix Riesenberg

  Men, Sea, Important

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• Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

  Herman Melville

  Inspirational, Funny, Years

  Herman Melville (2008). “Moby-Dick”, p.1, Velvet Element Books

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• I keep sailing on in this middle passage. I am sailing into the wind and the dark. But I am doing my best to keep my boat steady and my sails full.

  Arthur Ashe

  Inspirational, Funny, Dark

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• Success soon palls. The joyous time is when the breeze first strikes your sails, and the waters rustle under your bows.

  Charles Buxton

  Inspirational, Sea Breeze, Water

  Charles Buxton, John Llewelyn Davies (1873). “Notes of Thought”, p.126

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• Man marks the earth with ruin - his control stops with the shore.

  Lord Byron

  Ocean, Men, Light Waves

  Childe Harold's Pilgrimage canto 4, st. 179 (1818)

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• To reach a port, we must sail - sail, not tie at anchor - sail, not drift.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Inspirational, Life, Anchors

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1941). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1938, Volume 7”, p.248, Best Books on

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

  E. B. White

  Men, Sailing, Boat

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• The cabin of a small yacht is truly a wonderful thing; not only will it shelter you from a tempest, but from the other troubles in life, it is a safe retreat.

  Lewis Francis Herreshoff

  Sea, Sailing, Cabins

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• There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not.

  Kenneth Grahame

  Somewhere Else, Sailing, Ems

  Kenneth Grahame (1988). “My Dearest Mouse: 'The Wind in the Willows' Letters”, Viking Press

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• I wanted freedom, open air and adventure. I found it on the sea.

  Alain Gerbault

  Adventure, Air, Sea

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• It isn't that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better.

  Francis Drake

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

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• Only fools and passengers drink at sea.

  Alan Villiers

  Sea, Sailing, Fool

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• No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.

  Helen Keller

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

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• Thats what a ship is, you know. Its not a keel and a hull and a deck and sails. Thats what a ship needs. But what a ship is. What the Black Pearl really is . . . is freedom.

  Johnny Depp

  Sailing, Black, Needs

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• One cannot look at the sea without wishing for the wings of a swallow.

  Richard Francis Burton

  Islands, Sea, Wings

  Sir Richard Francis Burton (1863). “Wanderings in West Africa from Liverpool to Fernando Po”, p.65

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• It is the weather, not work, that wears out sails.

  Thomas Fleming Day

  Weather, Sail

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• He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles.

  Walter Scott

  Inspirational, Success, Wind

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• The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.

  Isak Dinesen

  Beach, Encouragement, Ocean

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• Even now; with a thousand little voyages notched in my belt. I still feel a memorial chill on casting off.

  E. B. White

  Casting Off, Memorial, Voyages

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• The best that science can devise and that naval organization can provide must be regarded only as an aid, and never as a substitute for good seamanship.

  Chester W. Nimitz

  Military, Organization, Sailing

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• Headwinds are sore vexations and the more passengers the sorer.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Sailing, Vexation, Passengers

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1910). “Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson: with annotations”

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• 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; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

  Herman Melville

  Depression, Strong, Hands

  Herman Melville (2002). “Moby-Dick: A Picture Voyage : an Abridged and Illustrated Edition of the Original Classic”, p.13, Spinner Publications

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• How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Ocean, Interesting, Earth

  "Blue Carbon: The Role of Healthy Oceans in Binding Carbon : a Rapid Response Assessment" by Christian Nellemann, Emily Corcoran, UNEP/Earthprint, (p. 23), 2009.

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• The chance for mistakes is about equal to the number of crew squared.

  Ted Turner

  Mistake, Numbers, Sailing

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