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

The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.

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.

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.

The sea receives us in a proper way only when we are without clothes.

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.

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.

Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.

Without a decisive naval force, we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.

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

The most advanced nations are always those who navigate the most.

We are as near to heaven by sea as by land!

The Mediterranean has the colors of a mackerel, changeable I mean. You don’t always know if it is green or violet—you can’t even say it’s blue, because the next moment the changing light has taken on a tinge of pink or gray.