If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea..."
- Antoine de Saint Exupery
"There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."
Spoken by Ratty to Mole in Wind in the Willows a children's book by Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932).
THE RELIGION OF A SAILOR
A sea captain when he stands upon the bridge, or looks out from his deck-house, thinks much about God and about the world. Away in the valley yonder among the corn and the poppies men may well forget all things except the warmth of the sun upon the face, and the kind shadow under the hedge; but he who journeys through storm and darkness must needs think and think. One July a couple of years ago I took my supper with a Captain Moran on board the s.s. Margaret, that had put into a western river from I know not where. I found him a man of many notions all flavoured with his personality, as is the way with sailors. He talked in his queer sea manner of God and the world, and up through all his words broke the hard energy of his calling.
- William
Butler
Yeats,
The Celtic Twilight
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
- William Arthur Ward
I just thank God I don’t live in a trailer.
Jimmy
Buffet
, Son of a son of a sailor
The house was built on the highest part of the narrow tongue of land between the harbor and the open sea. It had lasted through three hurricanes and it was built solid as a ship.
- Ernest Hemingway
Sailing is just the bottom line, like adding up the score in bridge. My real interest is in the tremendous game of life.
- Dennis Conner
There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes.
- Old Norwegian Adage
Any fool can carry on, but a wise man knows how to shorten sail in time.
- Joseph Conrad
I cannot not sail.
- E. B. White
The lovely thing about cruising is that planning usually turns out to be of little use.
- Dom Degnon
There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea.
- Joseph Conrad
The days pass happily with me wherever my ship sails.
- Joshua Slocum
At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much.
- Robin Lee Graham
The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea.
- Isak Dinesen
The sea hates a coward.
- Eugene O’Neill
To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go.
- Joshua Slocum
Boats, like whiskey, are all good.
- R. D. Culler
Wind is to us what money is to life on shore.
-
Sterling
Hayden
There is nothing like lying flat on your back on the deck, alone except for the helmsman aft at the wheel, silence except for the lapping of the sea against the side of the ship. At that time you can be equal to Ulysses and brother to him.
- Errol Flynn
From http://www.inlikeflynn.com/
Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Give him a fishing lesson and he'll sit in a boat drinking beer every weekend.
- Alex Blackwell
Don't worry about the world ending today. It's already tomorrow in Fiji.
- Daria Blackwell
(variation on quote attributed to Charles Schultz's which references Australia.
Fiji just happens to be exactly halfway round the world from here.)
"Not all who wander are lost."
- JRR Tolkien
There are three sorts of people; those who are alive, those who are dead, and those who are at sea.
- Old Capstan Chantey attributed to Anacharsis, 6th Century BC
Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.
H. Melville, Opening Line from Moby Dick
Now - bring me that horizon.
The last line from Pirates of the Caribbean:
"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."
-William Arthur Ward
"He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea."
-
Thomas
Fuller
.
"Without patience, a sailor I would never be."
-Lee Allred
"The sea finds out everything you did wrong."
-
Francis
Stokes
“I start from the premise that no object created by man is as satisfying to his body and soul as a proper sailing yacht.”
-
Arthur
Beiser
1978, The Proper Yacht
"He who lets the sea lull him into a sense of security is in very grave danger."
-Hammond Ines
"It's out there at sea that you are really yourself."
-Vito Dumas
"Whenever your preparations for the sea are poor; the sea worms its way in and finds the problems."
-
Francis
Stokes
"I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as perhaps few men have studied it, neglecting all else."
-
Joshua
Slocum
"When I forget how talented God is, I look to the sea."
-Whoopi Goldberg
" A tourist remains an outsider throughout his visit; but a sailor is part of the local scene from the monent he arrives."
-
Anne
Davison
"Men in a ship are always looking up, and men ashore are usually looking down."
-
John
Masefield
"To young men contemplating a voyage I'd say go."
-
Joshua
Slocum
"At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much."
-Robin Lee Graham
"A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind."
-Webb Chiles
"Sailors, with their built in sense of order, service and discipline, should really be running the world."
-
Nicholas
Monsarrat
"Only fools and passengers drink at sea."
-Allan Villiers
"Out of sight of land the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him."
-Charles C. Davis
On Boats:
"There is little man has made that approaches anything in nature, but a sailing ship does. There is not much man has made that calls to all the best in him, but a sailing ship does." -
Allan
Villiers
"The perfection of a yacht's beauty is that nothing should be there for only beauty's sake." -
John
MacGregor
"The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place." -
Arthur
Ransome
"There are only two colors to paint a boat, black or white, and only a fool would paint a boat black." -
Nathanael
G. Herreshoff
"For one thing, I was no longer alone; a man is never alone with the wind-and the boat made three." -
Hilaire
Belloc
"If you can not arrive in daylight, then stand off well clear, and wait until dawn. After all, that's one of the things God made boats for- to wait in." -Tristan Jones
"There is but a plank between a sailor and eternity." -
Thomas
Gibbons
"A small craft in an ocean is, or should be, a benevolent dictatorship." -Tristan Jones
On Engines:
"Long ocean passages usually don't require engines; it's the ports and headlands at each end that may demand some expert sailing."
-
Hal
Roth
"At last, the god-damned engine is quiet!"
-
William
Snaith
"He was now convinced that the most valuable sail on board was the diesel."
-
Ray
Kauffman
"The only reason that Uldra's engine never failed was because she did not have one."
-
Dennis
Puleston
"I can't wait for the oil wells to run dry, for the last gob of black, sticky muck to come oozing out of some remote well. Then the glory of sail will return."
-Triston Jones
On Weather:
"Headwinds are sore vexations and the more passengers the sorer."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Confronting a storm is like fighting God. All the powers in the universe seem to be against you and, in an exraordinary way, your irrelevance is at the same time both humbling and exalting."
-
Franciose
LeGrande
"I once knew a writer who, after saying beautiful things about the sea, passed through a Pacific hurricane, and he became a changed man."
-
Joshua
Slocum
"The pleasures of being becalmed became threadbare; there is a limit to untutored star gazing."
-Charles Landery
"Off
Cape Horn
there are but two kinds of weather, neither one of them a pleasant kind."
-
John
Masefield
"There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes."
-Old Norwegian Adage
"I loved cruising the coast of
Maine
. For one thing, it helped me conquer my fear of fog. Not that I have learned to feel secure in the fog, but at least I have learned how to grope without panic."
-Herb Payson
"Being hove to in a long gale is the most boring way of being terrified I know."
-
Donald
Hamilton
"Below 50 degrees south there is no law. Below 60 degrees south there is no God."
-Old Sailors Adage
"I hate storms, but calms undermine my spirits."
-
Bernard
Moitessier
"It's scary to have a 30 foot wave chasing you. If you are steering, you don't look back. The crew looks back for you, and you watch their faces. When they look straight up, then get ready!"
-
Magnus
Olsson
"Wind is to us what money is to life on shore."
-Sterling Hayden
"I don't know who named them swells. There's nothing swell about them. They should have named them awfuls."
-Hugo Vihlen
"It's remarkable how quickly a good and favorable wind can sweep away the maddening frustrations of shore living."
-Ernest K. Gann
"A tradewind starts gently, without gusts — a huge ocean of air that slowly and resolutely begins to move with ever-increasing strength. Suddenly everything comes to life. Spirits rise as the sails fill. The boat heels slightly and moves ahead. The almost oppressive silence gives way to the sound of the bow cutting through the water. Gone is the sea’s glassy surface, and with it the terrible glare. Close the hatches and ports! We’re sailing again!"
-
Jim
Moore
from By Way of the Wind, 1991
More on Boats:
"Boats, like whiskey, are all good."
-R.D. (Pete) Culler
"A ship is always referred to as "she" because it costs so much to keep her in paint and powder."
-ADM. Chester Nimitz
"I want a boat that drinks 6, eats 4, and sleeps 2."
-Earnest K. Gann
"It looks like frozen snot."
-L. Francis Herreshoff, looking at a Herreshoff Bullseye built of fiberglass.
"If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most."
-E. B. White
"You have no right to own a yacht if you ask that question."
-J. P. Morgan Sr., in answer to a question by Henry Clay Pierce on how much it costs to own and run a yacht.
"Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made."
-Robert N. Rose
"The cabin of a small yacht is truly a wonderful thing; not only will it shelter you from a tempest, but from the other troubles in life, it is a safe retreat."
-L. Francist Herreshoff
More on Sailors:
"Bad cooking is responsible for more trouble at sea than all other things put together."
-
Thomas
Fleming
Day
"To the question, "When were your spirits at the lowest ebb?" the obvious answer seemed to be, "When the gin gave out."
-
Sir
Francis
Chichester
"When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land."
-
Dr.
Samuel
Johnson
"The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The art of the sailor is to leave nothing to chance."
-Annie Van De Wiele
"Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk."
-Sir Francis Chichester while loading his boat with gin.
"It isn't that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better."
-
Sir
Francis
Drake
"The only way to get a good crew is to marry one."
-
Eric
Hiscock
"A sailing ship is no democracy; you don't caucus a crew as to where you'll go anymore than you inquire when they'd like to shorten sail."
-Sterling Hayden
"I know who you are, but you'll have to wipe your feet."
-
Capt.
Richard
Brown
of the schooner
America
to Prince Albert of England, 1851
"Only two sailors, in my experience, never ran aground. One never left port and the other was an atrocious liar."
-
Don
Bamford
"We had twelve hours of daylight, and if we did not sight the coast, I should conclude that
Brazil
was merely a geographical expression."
-Frank Wightman
On the Sea:
"The sea hates a coward."
-
Eugene
O'Neill
"The ocean is an object of no small terror."
-Edmund Burke
"The sea drives truth into a man like salt."
-
Hilaire
Belloc
"I wanted freedom, open air and adventure. I found it on the sea."
-
Alaine
Gerbault
"Waves are not measured in feet or inches, they are measured in increments of fear."
-Buzzy
Trent
"The ocean has always been a salve to my soul...the best thing for a cut or abrasion was to go swimming in salt water. Later down the road of life, I made the discovery that salt water was also good for the mental abrasions one inevitably acquires on land."
-Jimmy Buffett
"The sea is the same as it has been since before men ever went on it in boats."
- Ernest Hemingway
"The cure for anything is saltwater — sweat, tears, or the sea."
- Isak Dinesen
On Sailing:
"To be successful at sea we must keep things simple."
-R. D. (
Pete
) Culler
"One of the best temporary cures for pride and affection is seasickness."
-
Henry
Wheeler Show
"The thing I realized this last few days is that the earth is a big place."
-
Paul
Cayard
"
Land
was created to provide a place for boats to visit."
-
Brooks
Atkinson
"Never a ship sails out of a bay, but carries my heart as a stowaway."
-Roselle Mercier Montgomery
"Cruising has two pleasures. One is to go out in wider waters from a sheltered place. The other is to go into a sheltered place from wider waters."
-
Howard
Bloomfield
"Our voyage hade commenced, and at last we were away, gliding through the clean water, past the reeds. Care was lifted from our shoulders, for we were free from advice, pessimism, officialism, heat and hot air."
-
K.
Adlard
Coles
"The single commandment of anchoring is "thou shall create scope."
-
Reese
Palley
Translation: "To sail is necessary" 
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