A fair complexion is unbecoming to a sailor: he ought to be swarthy from the waters of the sea and the rays of the sun.

Take back your golden fiddles, and we’ll beat to open sea.

I am ill every time it blows hard, and nothing but my enthusiastic love for the profession keeps me one hour at sea.

Ashore it’s wine, women, and song; aboard it’s rum, bum, and concertina.

I never even saw the use of the sea. Many a sad heart has it caused, and many a sick stomach has it occasioned! The boldest sailor climbs on board with a heavy soul and leaps on land with a light spirit.

And to our age’s drowsy blood / Still shouts the inspiring sea.

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

What will not attract a man’s stare at sea?—a gull, a turtle, a flying fish!

Why is a ship under sail more poetical than a hog in a high wind? The hog is all nature, the ship is all art.

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.

You never enjoy the world aright, till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens, and crowned with the stars.

Many, many steeples would have to be stacked one on top of another to reach from the bottom to the surface of the sea. It is down there that the sea folk live.

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