Seamen Quotes

• I do not know whether I have been a good seaman, but I know I have been a very faithful one.

  Joseph Conrad

  Faithful, Knows, Has Beens

  Joseph Conrad (2015). “The Complete Novels of Joseph Conrad - All 20 Works in One Premium Edition: Including Unforgettable Titles like Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, Under Western Eyes and Many More (With Author’s Letters, Memoirs and Critical Essays)”, p.4350, e-artnow

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• A ship is always referred to as 'she' because it costs so much to keep one in paint and powder.

  Chester W. Nimitz

  Peace, War, Sea

  1959 In the NewYork Times, 24May.

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• For every Seaman of Industry and Ingenuity, is not only a Navigator, but a Merchant, and also a Soldier.

  William Petty

  Soldier, Navigators, Merchants

  "Several Essays in Political Arithmetick".

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• For there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence.

  Joseph Conrad

  Sea, Mistress, Mysterious

  Joseph Conrad (2008). “Heart of Darkness and Other Tales”, OUP Oxford

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• Recollect that you must be a seaman to be an officer and also that you cannot be a good officer without being a gentleman.

  Horatio Nelson

  Gentleman, Officers

  Horatio Nelson (1846). “The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson”, p.214

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• Great waves, and blaze with fire like them.In beauty, but do not condemn,The seamen who embark and fail,But only those who will not sail.

  John Piper

  Fire, Failing, Wave

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• One ship is very much like another and the sea is always the same. In the immutability of their surroundings the foreign shores, the foreign faces, the changing immensity of life, glide past, veiled not by a sense of mystery but by a slightly disdainful ignorance; for there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as Destiny.

  Joseph Conrad

  Ignorance, Past, Destiny

  Joseph Conrad (2008). “Heart of Darkness and Other Tales”, OUP Oxford

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• God bless the soldiers and seamen, with all their brave commanders.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Religious, Brave, Soldier

  Abraham Lincoln (2012). “The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)”, p.1402, Jazzybee Verlag

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• Every Sailor has the potential to lead," said Mullen, "I don't care if it's a seaman recruit or someone higher ranking than myself. Where there's a will, there's a way.

  Michael Mullen

  Military, Care, Way

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• That Seaman is a handsome young man but he spends too much time looking in his mirror rather than at the ball. You can't keep goal with hair like that.

  Brian Clough

  Men, Mirrors, Hair

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• To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go.

  Joshua Slocum

  Inspirational, Funny, Encouraging

  Joshua Slocum (1985). “The Voyages of Joshua Slocum”, p.381, Sheridan House, Inc.

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• I've seen your stormy seas and stormy women, And pity lovers rather more than seamen.

  Lord Byron

  Sad, Sea, Lovers

  LORD BYRON (1875). “DON JUAN”, p.155

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• Put together a seaman, soldier and airman and what do you get? The sum of all fears.

  Winston Churchill

  Soldier, Together, Airmen

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• But where, after all, would be the poetry of the sea were there no wild waves?

  Joshua Slocum

  Uplifting, Hard Times, Sea

  Joshua Slocum, Applewood Books (CRT) (2006). “Sailing Alone Around the World”, p.193, Applewood Books

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• The humblest craft that floats makes its appeal to a seaman by the faithfulness of her life.

  Joseph Conrad

  Sailing, Nautical, Crafts

  Joseph Conrad (2015). “The Napoleonic Novels: The Rover & Suspense: From the Renowned Author of The Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes (Including Author’s Memoirs, Letters & Critical Essays)”, p.604, e-artnow

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• It's extremely difficult to get these jobs because you can't get a job on a ship unless you have seaman's paper's, and you can't get seaman's papers unless you have a job on a ship. There had to be a way to break through the circle, and he was the one who arranged it for me.

  Paul Auster

  Jobs, Break Through, Circles

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• I was a tried seaman when, for the first time, I set foot upon the soil of my country, and took up my residence where my people had lived for over two hundred years.

  John Sergeant Wise

  Country, Time, Years

  John Sergeant Wise, Paul Dennis Sporer (2005). “End of an Era: The Last Days of Traditional Southern Culture as Seen Through the Eyes of a Young Confederate Soldier”, p.6, Anza Publishing

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• When I look upon seamen, men of science and philosophers, man is the wisest of all beings; when I look upon priests and prophets nothing is as contemptible as man.

  Diogenes

  Men, Looks, Philosopher

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• To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea 'cruising' it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.

  Sterling Hayden

  Mean, Sea, Play

  Sterling Hayden (2015). “Wanderer”, p.42, Pickle Partners Publishing

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• Columbus's doom-burdened caravels
  Slant to the shore, and all their seamen land.

  J. C. Squire

  Land, Sailing, Columbus

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• He [Columbus] enjoyed long stretches of pure delight such as only a seaman may know, and moments of high, proud exultation that only a discoverer can experience.

  Samuel Eliot Morison

  Long, Experience, Delight

  Samuel Eliot Morison, Emily Morison Beck (1989). “Sailor historian: the best of Samuel Eliot Morison”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

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• I'm not trying to make excuses for David Seaman, but I think the
  lights may have been a problem.

  Kevin Keegan

  Thinking, Light, Trying

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• The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment. It is commonly observed, that among soldiers and seamen, though there is much kindness, there is little grief; they see their friend fall without any of that lamentation which is indulged in security and idleness, because they have no leisure to spare from the care of themselves; and whoever shall keep his thoughts equally busy will find himself equally unaffected with irretrievable losses.

  Samuel Johnson

  Kindness, Grief, Fall

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.306

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• A great philosopher in the wrong is like a beacon on the reefs which says to seamen: steer clear of me.

  Jacques Maritain

  Philosopher, Beacons, Clear

  Jacques Maritain (2015). “On the Use of Philosophy: Three Essays”, p.5, Princeton University Press

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• America was discovered accidentally by a great seaman who was looking for something else; when discovered it was not wanted; and most of the exploration for the next fifty years was done in the hope of getting through or around it. America was named after a man who discovered no part of the New World. History is like that, very chancy.

  Samuel Eliot Morison

  Hope, Men, Discovery

  The Oxford History of the American People ch. 2 (1965)

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