Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,159,190 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words that are clear; the great truth has great silence.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I touch God in my song as the hill touched the far-away sea with its waterfall.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have lost my sense of a universe. They say this is the richest era of human existence; but I think a man can be richer in knowing every atom of a single golden island in a blue sea than by spending his days striding among all the worlds.”
Robert Silverberg (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From too much love of living, From hope and fear set free, We thank with brief thanksgiving Whatever gods may be That no man lives forever, That dead men rise up never; That even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea.”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I will go back to the great sweet mother, Mother and lover of men, the sea. I will go down to her, I and no other, Close with her, kiss her and mix her with me.”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There lived a singer in France of old By the tideless dolorous midland sea. In a land of sand and ruin and gold There shone one woman, and none but she.”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A baby's feet, like sea-shells pink Might tempt, should heaven see meet, An angel's lips to kiss, we think, A baby's feet.”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A poor man's wrong and mine and all the world's, Diverse and individual, many and one, Insufferable of long-suffering less than God's, Of all endurance unendurable else, Being come to flood and fullness now, the tide Is risen in mine as in the sea's own heart To tempest and to triumph. Not for nought Am I that wild wife's bridegroom — old and hoar, Not sapless yet nor soulless.”
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The ancient Egyptians had a superstitious antipathy to the sea; a superstition nearly of the same kind prevails among the Indians; and the Chinese have never excelled in foreign commerce.”
Adam Smith (1723–1790) said by 1790 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If the importation of foreign cattle, for example, were made ever so free, so few could be imported, that the grazing trade of Great Britain could be little affected by it. Live cattle are, perhaps, the only commodity of which the transportation is more expensive by sea than by land.”
Adam Smith (1723–1790) said by 1790 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Waves striking the sea cliffs bounced back outward, creating interference patterns with the incoming waves that could have come right out of a physics wave tank: so beautiful. And so strange, that the world should conform so well to mathematical formulation. The unreasonable effectiveness of math; it was at the heart of the great unexplainable.”
Kim Stanley Robinson (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My wife and I went to a hotel where we got a waterbed. My wife called it the Dead Sea.”
Henny Youngman (1906–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What, concretely, is Enlightenment?" "Seeing Reality as it is," said the Master. "Doesn't everyone see Reality as it is?" "Oh, no! Most people see it as they believe it is." "What's the difference?" "The difference between thinking you are drowning in a stormy sea and knowing you cannot drown because there isn't any water in sight for miles around.”
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Awakening : Conversations with the Masters (2003), p. 221
“...in New Year's Eve, we look out over the surging throng of ecstatic celebrants, and the sea of humanity is blue. They're all wearing freebie hats from Nivea skin creme. No hats for the Knicks, Budweiser or [[w:I Love New York|I Heart [sic] New York]]. All Nivea skin creme. Countless hats of Nivea blue. I've heard of product placement, but this is carpet bombing.”
Roger Ebert (1942–2013) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Review of New Year's Eve (7 December 2011)
“Though many different paths, O Lord, May lead us to some great reward, They gather and are merged in thee Like floods of Ganges in the sea.”
Kalidasa (active around 400) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Raghuvaṃśa, canto 10 (tr. Arthur W. Ryder, 1912) — the incarnation of Rama
“Time is more complex near the sea than in any other place, for in addition to the circling of the sun and the turning of the seasons, the waves beat out the passage of time on the rocks and the tides rise and fall as a great clepsydra.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I gave to you, now, you give to me I'd like to know what you learned. The sky is blue and so is the sea What is the color, when black is burned?”
Neil Young (born 1945) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: I Am a Child, from Last Time Around (1968)
“There are certain things - as, a spider, a ghost, The income-tax, gout, an umbrella for three - That I hate, but the thing that I hate the most Is a thing they call the Sea.”
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) said by 1898 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is an insect that people avoid (Whence is derived the verb 'to flee'). Where have you been by it most annoyed? In lodgings by the Sea.”
Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) said by 1898 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Shakespeare, in a play, brought in a number of men saying they had suffered shipwreck in Bohemia, where there is no sea by some 100 miles.”
Ben Jonson (1572–1637) said by 1637 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...like a ship, clean and trim on a dirty sea of pox and camel-dung.”
Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We're the bridge across forever, arching above the sea, adventuring for our pleasure, living mysteries for the fun of it, choosing disasters triumphs challenges impossible odds, testing ourselves over and again, learning love and love and LOVE!”
Richard Bach (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He also said: “Just as fish die if they are on dry land for some time, so do monks who loiter outside their cells or waste time with worldlings release themselves from the tension of hesychia. So we should hasten back to the cell (like the fish to the sea) lest while loitering outside we forget to keep a watch on the inner self.”
Anthony the Great (251–357) said by 357 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Apparently some fire-eaters to-day have been saying "Never again must we allow ourselves to get into the same condition of military unpreparedness, so we are going to build up a vast war machine in this country in order to surround defeated Germany with a sea of peaceful tranquillity..." It looks as though the consequences of defeat will be more desirable than those of victory.”
Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960) first seen 1559 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hansard, House of Commons 5th series, vol. 402, col. 1559.
“There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law. I love music passionately. And because l love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it. It is a free art gushing forth — an open-air art, boundless as the elements, the wind, the sky, the sea. It must never be shut in and become an academic art.”
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) said by 1918 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in An Encyclopedia of Quotations About Music (1981) by Nat Shapiro, p. 268
Also quoted by: Κλωντ Ντεμπυσσύ (el)
“Perhaps the time may come when it will be wise to abandon all North America but Canada, Nova Scotia, and the Floridas, but then the generality of the nation must see it first in that light, but to treat with Independence can never be possible... A sea war is the only wise plan.”
George III (1738–1820) first seen 1768 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Lord North (13 January 1778), quoted in The Correspondence of King George the Third with Lord North, From 1768 to 1783, Vol. II, ed. W. Bodham Donne (1867), pp. 118-119
“Piglet looked up, and looked away again. And he felt so Foolish and Uncomfortable that he had almost decided to run away to Sea and be a Sailor, when suddenly he saw something.”
A. A. Milne (1882–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon — no alternative. The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight.”
Golda Meir (1898–1978) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in LIFE magazine (3 October 1969), p. 32
“To a person uninstructed in natural history, his country or sea-side stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall.”
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) first seen 1854 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Educational Value of the Natural History Sciences" (1854) p. 29
“For myself I say deliberately, it is better to have a millstone tied round the neck and be thrown into the sea than to share the enterprises of those to whom the world has turned, and will turn, because they minister to its weaknesses and cover up the awful realities which it shudders to look at.”
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Aphorism #367, in Aphorisms and Reflections (1907) edited by Henrietta A. Huxley, his widow
“And Jesus was a sailor When he walked upon the water And he spent a long time watching From his lonely wooden tower And when he knew for certain Only drowning men could see him He said "All men will be sailors then Until the sea shall free them" But he himself was broken Long before the sky would open Forsaken, almost human He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone”
Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Honor Wisdom; and deny it not to them that would learn; and shew it unto them that dispraise it! Sow not the sea fields!”
Pythagoras (583–491 BC) said by 491 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.”
Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's been historical conflict between China and Russia for well over 1,000 years. … People forget that the Mongols came all the way to the Baltic Sea and all the way to where St. Petersburg is today … And the Russians have a good sense of history and they remember that.”
Tom Clancy (1947–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At night I sit in my chamber and read the Bible. Far in the distance roars the sea. Then I lie down and think for a long time about the calm and pale man from Nazareth.”
Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) said by 1945 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The "mountain-sea" spirit means that it is bad to repeat the same thing several times when fighting the enemy. There may be no help but to do something twice, but do not try it a third time. If you once make an attack and fail, there is little chance of success if you use the same approach again.”
Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) said by 1645 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most of the world is of great roughness and infinite complexity. However, the infinite sea of complexity includes two islands of simplicity: one of Euclidean simplicity and a second of relative simplicity in which roughness is present but is the same at all scales.”
Benoît Mandelbrot (1924–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cursed be all those on land and sea who eat their fill, cursed be all those who starve yet raise no hand in protest, cursed be all the bread, the wine, the meat which day by day descends deep in the entrails of the exploited man and turns not into freedom's cry, the murderer's ruthless knife!”
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Comrades, I've voyaged long and far on sea and soul, my eyes have seen disease, gods, ghosts, and men, and yet in no land have I seen a more false, murderous siren than that wind-headed, babbling, blind bitch-hound called Hope!”
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To cleave that sea in the gentle autumnal season, murmuring the name of each islet, is to my mind the joy most apt to transport the heart of man into paradise.”
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. ... All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple, frugal heart.”
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We’ll hold hands and then we’ll watch the sunrise From the bottom of the sea But first, are you experienced? Uh-have you ever been experienced? Well, I have”
Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Castles made of sand, fall in the sea, eventually”
Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Light breaks where no sun shines; Where no sea runs, the waters of the heart Push in their tides; And, broken ghosts with glow-worms in their heads, The things of light File through the flesh where no flesh decks the bones.”
Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines", st. 1 (1934), st. 1
“Dawn breaks behind the eyes; From poles of skull and toe the windy blood Slides like a sea; Nor fenced, nor staked, the gushers of the sky Spout to the rod Divining in a smile the oil of tears.”
Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Light Breaks Where No Sun Shines, st. 1 (1934), st. 3
“They shall have stars at elbow and foot; Though they go mad they shall be sane, Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again; Though lovers be lost love shall not; And death shall have no dominion.”
Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: And Death Shall Have No Dominion", st. 1 (1943)
“One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now, out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.”
Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Child's Christmas in Wales", from Quite Early One Morning (1954)
“Time held me green and dying Though I sang in my chains like the sea.”
Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The whites have driven us from the sea to the lakes. We can go no further... unless every tribe unanimously combines to give a check to the ambition and avarice of the whites they will soon conquer us apart and disunited and we will be driven from our native country and scattered as autumn leaves before the wind.”
Tecumseh (1768–1813) said by 1813 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source