Great Sea Faring Quotes

[Kriterian]

A dark
Illimitable ocean without bound,
Without dimension, where length, breadth, and highth
And time and place are lost
-- John Milton "Paradise Lost" 1667


The waters were his winding sheet, the sea
was made his tomb
Yet for his fame the ocean sea, was not
sufficient room.
-- RICHARD BARNFIELD "The Encomion of Lady Pecunia" 1598


As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
--SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" 1798


We perished, each alone:
But I beneath a rougher sea,
And whelmed in deeper gulfs than he.
--WILLIAM COWPER "The Castaway" 1799


The sea, washing the equator and the poles, offers its perilous aid ...Beware of me,
it says, but if you can hold me, I am the key to all the lands.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson


We are as near to heaven by sea as by land!
--SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT In Richard Hakluyt


The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang and has no respect.
--Carl Sandberg

 

[ARNGUSMCMP]

Can't beleive no one quoted this yet,

"THAR SHE BLOWS!!!" Moby Dick, Herman Melville.

Sure there's a lot more good uns from there, but unfortunately, my copy is sitting in a library in California. (I hate moving and having to give away all my books.)

Nate

 

[H2Andy]

Sit still and hear the last of our sea sorrow
--Shakespeare, The Tempest

Full fathom five thy Father lies,
Of his bones are Corals made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes,
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a Sea-change
Into something rich and strange
Sea-Nymphs hourly ring his knell.
Hark! Now I hear them: ding-dong, bell.
-- Shakespeare, The Tempest

And so we came upon Endeavour Island, land-sick from long custom of the sea.
--Jack London, The Sea Wolf

The sea - this truth must be confessed - has no generosity. No display of manly qualities - courage, hardihood, endurance, faithfulness - has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power.
-- Joseph Conrad

 

[OBXDIVEGUY]

"Years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the tradewinds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover"
- Mark Twain

 

[GrierHPharmD]

I've been collecting a few myself. Mostly poetry, but a few prose pieces as well. Here are a couple favorites:

“You like the sea, Captain?”
“Yes; I love it! The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on all sides. The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful existence. It is nothing but love and emotion; it is the `Living Infinite,’ as one of your poets has said. In fact, Professor, Nature manifests herself in it by her three kingdoms —mineral, vegetable, and animal. The sea is the vast reservoir of Nature. The globe began with sea, so to speak; and who knows if it will not end with it? In it is supreme tranquillity. The sea does not belong to despots. Upon its surface men can still exercise unjust laws, fight, tear one another to pieces, and be carried away with terrestrial horrors. But at thirty feet below its level, their reign ceases, their influence is quenched, and their power disappears. Ah! sir, live—live in the bosom of the waters! There only is independence! There I recognise no masters! There I am free!”
Captain Nemo suddenly became silent in the midst of this enthusiasm, by which he was quite carried away. For a few moments he paced up and down, much agitated.

-Jules Verne
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea

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The world below the brine,
Forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves,
Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds, the thick
tangle openings, and pink turf,
Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white, and gold, the
play of light through the water,
Dumb swimmers there among the rocks, coral, gluten, grass, rushes,
and the aliment of the swimmers,
Sluggish existences grazing there suspended, or slowly crawling
close to the bottom,
The sperm-whale at the surface blowing air and spray, or disporting
with his flukes,
The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the hairy
sea-leopard, and the sting-ray,
Passions there, wars, pursuits, tribes, sight in those ocean-depths,
breathing that thick-breathing air, as so many do,
The change thence to the sight here, and to the subtle air breathed
by beings like us who walk this sphere,
The change onward from ours to that of beings who walk other spheres.

The World below the Brine
By Walt Whitman
1819-1892

 

[XJae]

So my darling and I make love in the sand
To salute the last moment ever on dry land
Our machine it has done it’s work, played it’s part well
Without a scratch on our body when we bid it farewell
Starfish and giant foams greet us with a smile
Before our heads go under we take our last look at the killing noise
Of the out of style

-Jimi Hendrix

 

[GrierHPharmD]

I thought that it might be in keeping with the spirit of this thread to post some really nice Japanese woodblock prints of the ocean. I particularly like the "women diving for abalone", and I'm sure lots of folks have seen The Great Wave... (The site said it was Hiroshige, but another site said Hokusai. I'm no expert, so I left the names as I found them.)

Hope you enjoy them,
Grier

 

[Mako Mark]

Fish: "so you are from the sea?, Tell me, What is the big blue really like?

Nemo: "err, it big and its blue"