Top 53 Sailing Quotes That Will Inspire You

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Sailing requires you to be more in tuned with nature. It is a great way to get away from your hectic life and be inspired by the strength and beauty of the ocean. With that in mind, check out the top 53 sailing quotes.

#53 – 50. Sailing Quotes

53. Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain

52. The sailor is frankness, the landsman is finesse. Life is not a game with the sailor, demanding the long head – Herman Melville

51. Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think. – Robert Henri

50. There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea. – Joseph Conrad

#49 – 40. Sailing Quotes

49. There is but a plank between a sailor and eternity. – Thomas Gibbons

48. He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast. – Leonardo da Vinci

47. The sea hates a coward. – Eugene O’Neill

46. At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much. – Robin Lee Graham

45. You haven’t lived until you’ve sailed. – David Sedaris, Theft by Finding: Diaries

44. The sea drives truth into a man like salt. – Hilaire Belloc

43. No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. – Helen Keller

42. The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

41. It is not that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better. – Sir Francis Drake

40. A sailor’s joys are as simple as a child’s. – Bernard Moitessier, Sailor

#39 – 30. Sailing Quotes

39. He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind, and extract a motive power out of the greatest obstacles. – Walter Scott

38. Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit. – Brooks Atkinson

37. The art of the sailor is to leave nothing to chance. – Annie Van De Wiele

36. They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep. – Bible, Psalms 107:23-24

35. To young men contemplating a voyage I’d say go. – Joshua Slocum

34. The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea. – Isak Dinesen

33. The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. – William Arthur Ward

32. He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea. – Thomas Fuller

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

30. The sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness. – Joseph Conrad

#29 – 20. Sailing Quotes

29. Confronting a storm is like fighting God. All the powers in the universe seem to be against you and, in an extraordinary way, your irrelevance is at the same time both humbling and exalting. – Francis LeGrande

28. The only way to get a good crew is to marry one. – Eric Hiscock

27. I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking, And a gray mist on the sea’s face, and a gray dawn breaking. – John Masefield

26. To reach a port we must set sail – Sail, not tie at anchor Sail, not drift. – Franklin D. Roosevelt

25. All of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. 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 from whence we came. – John F. Kennedy

24. A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind. Live passionately, even if it kills you, because something is going to kill you anyway. – Webb Chiles, Sailor

23. To desire nothing beyond what you have is surely happiness. Aboard a boat, it is frequently possible to achieve just that. That is why sailing is a way of life, one of the finest of lives. – Carleton Mitchell

22. I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship. – Louisa May Alcott

21. I hate storms, but calms undermine my spirits. – Bernard Moitessier, Sailor

20. Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination. – Fitzhugh Dodson

#19 – 10. Sailing Quotes

19. 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

18. No literature is richer than that of the sea. No story is more enthralling, no tradition is more secure. – Felix Riesenberg

17. 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

16. I wanted freedom, open air and adventure. I found it on the sea. – Alaine Gerbault

15. To young men contemplating a voyage, I would say GO. – Joshua Slocum

14. If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable. – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

13. Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. – Syrus Publilius

12. The wind and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigator. – Edmund Gibbon

11. Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. – African Proverb

10. A ship in port is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. – Grace Murray Hopper

#9 – 1. Sailing Quotes

9. The sooner we learn to be jointly responsible, the easier the sailing will be. – Ella Maillart

8. If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. – Antoine De Saint-Exupery

7. The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore. – Vincent Van Gogh

6. The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever. – Jacques Yves Cousteau

5. There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. – Kenneth Grahame, Writer

4. Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel. – August Hare

3. A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. – John A. Shedd

2. The man who has experienced shipwreck shudders even at a calm sea. – Ovid

1. The sea finds out everything you did wrong. – Francis Stokes

Ideas for the top 53 sailing quotes come from the following sources.^[1]Quoteland – sailing^[2]quoteabulary – Sail Through These 44 Famous Quotes About Sea and Sailing^[3]SailingEurope – Nautical Terms, Sailing Quote And Sailing Phrases