Oar Quotes

• He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the strokes of the oar; and many fold in their passage; while they lie waiting for the gale.

  Samuel Johnson

  Life, Lying, Wind

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• There are some people who leave impressions not so lasting as the imprint of an oar upon the water.

  Kate Chopin

  Memorable, Water, People

  Kate Chopin (2005). “The Awakening - Literary Touchstone”, p.142, Prestwick House Inc

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• When life takes the wind out of your sails, it is to test you at the oars.

  Robert Breault

  Inspirational, Life, Moving On

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• When the winds of life don't hit your sails, you grab the oars of life and you start pushing.

  Greg Plitt

  Wind, Pushing, Sail

  154 Copy quote

• A straight oar looks bent in the water. It matters not merely that we see a thing, but how we see it.

  Michel de Montaigne

  What Matters, Water, Looks

  "Selected Essays".

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• The prayer of the farmer kneeling in his field to weed it, the prayer of the rower kneeling with the stroke of his oar, are true prayers heard throughout nature.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Weed, Nature, Prayer

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.276, Library of America

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• If you put your soul against the oar with me, the power that made the universe will enter your sinew from a source not outside of your limbs, but from a holy realm that lives within us.

  Rumi

  Soul, Holy, Source

  10 Copy quote

• When you are rowing well and hard, the rhythm of the stroke takes over. It drives your days and restores your nights. It imparts cadence and direction. You feel like you and the boats are one, you feel that no obstacle will put up any more resistance than the water does to your oars, you feel that hard work and grit and mental toughness will always win it for you in the end.

  Barry S. Strauss

  Hard Work, Winning, Night

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• But oars alone can ne'er prevail To reach the distant coast; The breath of Heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.

  William Cowper

  Heaven, Toil, Lost

  William Cowper (1822). “The poems of William Cowper”, p.226

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• Two such as you with such a master speed, cannot be parted nor be swept away, from one another once you are agreed, that life is only life forevermore, together wing to wing and oar to oar.

  Robert Frost

  Anniversary, Marriage, Wedding

  Robert Frost (1936). “A Further Range”

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• What a heavy oar the pen is, and what a strong current ideas are to row in!

  Gustave Flaubert

  Strong, Ideas, Heavy

  Gustave Flaubert, Francis Steegmuller (1980). “The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1830-1857”, p.151, Harvard University Press

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• There are no galley-slaves in the royal vessel of divine love - every man works his oar voluntarily!

  Saint Francis de Sales

  Love, Men, Royal

  Saint Francis de Sales, Aeterna Press (2015). “The Spiritual Maxims of Saint Francis de Sales”, p.8, Aeterna Press

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• Consider that you radiate. At all times. Consider that what you’re feeling right now is rippling outward into a field of is-ness that anyone can dip their oar into. You are felt. You are heard. You are seen. If you were not here, the world would be different. Because of your presence, the universe is expanding.

  Danielle LaPorte

  Healing, Feelings, Different

  12 Copy quote

• We cannot be satisfied with things as they are. We cannot be satisfied to drift, to rest on our oars, to glide over a sea whose depths are shaken by subterranean upheavals.

  John F. Kennedy

  Sea, Depth, Upheaval

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• Just about a month from now I'm set adrift, with a diploma for a sail and lots of nerve for oars.

  Richard Halliburton

  Graduation, Senior, Memorable

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• The world is like a vast sea: mankind like a vessel sailing on its tempestuous bosom. ... [T]he sciences serve us for oars.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Science, Sea, Sailing

  Oliver Goldsmith (1824). “Letters from a Citizen of the World to His Friends in the East ...”, p.120

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• The oars game me power but also taught me humility.

  Barry S. Strauss

  Humility, Games, Taught

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• Two such as you with such a master speed Cannot be parted nor be swept away

  Robert Frost

  Wedding, Two, Speed

  Robert Frost (1936). “A Further Range”

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• A person cannot coast along in old destructive habits year after year and accept whatever comes along. A person must stand up on her own two legs and walk. Get off the bus and go get on another. Climb out of the ditch and cross the road. Find the road that s where you want to go. ... The only sermon that counts is the one that is formed by our actions. She would quit drinking and thereby show Kyle life is what you make it. A person can grab hold of her life and change things for the better. This happens all the time. We are not chips of wood drifting down the stream of time. We have oars.

  Garrison Keillor

  Drinking, Years, Two

  Garrison Keillor (2011). “Pontoon: A Lake Wobegon Novel”, p.96, Faber & Faber

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• Let go of the oars... Everything you want is downstream.

  Esther Hicks

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

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• Never rest on your oars as a boss. If you do, the whole company starts sinking.

  Lee Iacocca

  Boss, Sinking, Company

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• It is not good to have an oar in everyone's boat.

  Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden

  Focus, Boat

  8 Copy quote

• Prayer and praise are the oars by which a man may row his boat into the deep waters of the knowledge of Christ.

  Charles Spurgeon

  Prayer, Men, Deep Water

  Spurgeon, Charles (2015). “The Complete Works of C. H. Spurgeon, Volume 32: Sermons 1877-1937”, p.852, Delmarva Publications, Inc.

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• Without fear and disease, my life would be like a boat without oars.

  Edvard Munch

  Courage, Would Be, Disease

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• Low stir of leaves and dip of oars And lapsing waves on quiet shores.

  John Greenleaf Whittier

  Dip, Quiet, Wave

  John Greenleaf Whittier (1873). “The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier”, p.292

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