The legislator is like the navigator of a ship on the high seas. He can steer the vessel on which he sails, but he cannot alter its construction, raise the wind, or stop the waves from swelling beneath his feet.

The wonderful sea charmed me from the first.

I must be a mermaid, Rango. I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.

But look, our seas are what we make of them, full of fish or not, opaque or transparent, red or black, high or smooth, narrow or bankless—and we are ourselves sea, sand, coral, seaweed, beaches, tides, swimmers, children, waves.

I’ve been bathing in the poem / Of star-infused and milky sea / Devouring the azure greens.

Seafarers go to sleep in the evening not knowing whether they will find themselves at the bottom of the sea the next morning.

Seamen are the nearest to death and the furthest from God.

He that commands the sea is at great liberty and may take as much and as little of the war as he will.

The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.

He who commands the sea has command of everything.

Being thus arrived in good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stale earth, their proper element.

Never trust her at any time when the calm sea shows her false alluring smile.

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 whence we came.