sea or ocean quotes

[idiosynchrissy]

Does anyone have any favorite sea or ocean quotes from any type of source (poetry, prose, non-fiction) that they would like to share? They don't have to be about the sea necessarily but just related in some way. I'm looking for some good ones for an art project. Here's one of my favorites:

Come with me, I want to change nations,
Change towns. Leave this body aside
And go into a shell with you,
With our smallness, like sea snails.

-from "May" by Kirmen Uribe, translated by Elizabeth Macklin

[djy78usa]

Well, this thread is just begging for a Moby Dick quote, isn't it?


When beholding the tranquil beauty and brilliancy of the ocean's skin, one forgets the tiger heart that pants beneath it; and would not willingly remember that this velvet paw but conceals a remorseless fang.

- Herman Melville

[applepie]

Will a famous person do??? If so, I love this one by Jacques Cousteau

The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.

So very true in many ways. I've been in its hold for years, so this quote has always touched me with its simplicity.

[Michigan J Frog]

These two.

A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul. -Franz Kafka

Love, (understood as desire of good for another) is in fact so unnatural a phenomenon that it can scarcely repeat itself, the soul being unable to become virgin again and not having energy enough to cast itself out again into the ocean of another’s soul. -James Joyce

Beautiful.

[idiosynchrissy]

Thanks everyone. These are all great! Keep them coming if you have any more.

[FalseReality]

-When the storm is over and night falls and the moon is out in all its glory and all you're left with is the rhythm of the sea, of the waves, you know what God intended for the human race, you know what paradise is.
Harold Pinter

--"The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are. They're Caesar's praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, 'Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal.' Most of us can't rush around, talk to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven't time, money or that many friends. The things you're looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book. Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore."
Ray Bradbury

-"So we shall let the reader answer this question
for himself: Who is the happier man, he who has
braved the storm of life and lived, or he who has
stayed securely on shore and merely existed?"
Hunter S. Thompson

[idiosynchrissy]

Super. I'm loving all of these for my project.

[djy78usa]

A couple of JFK quotes:


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.

Speech given at Newport at the dinner before the America's Cup Races, September 1962


We set sail on this new sea because there is knowledge to be gained.

[dramageek]

This is from the princess bride. It's not really about the sea, but I like it.

"My love... a farm boy, poor. Poor and perfect. With eyes like the sea after a storm. On the high seas, your ship attacked. And the dread pirate Roberts never takes prisoners."

[idiosynchrissy]

Thanks, peeps! Anything with sea/ocean imagery is appreciated. So far these are all very nice.

[Guinivere]

This one is by Thomas Hood (1799 - 1845)

There is a silence where hath been no sound,
There is a silence where no sound may be,
In the cold grave - under the deep, deep sea.