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“For this reason those who are tossed about at sea, who proceed uphill and downhill over toilsome crags and heights, who go on campaigns that bring the greatest danger, are heroes and front-rank fighters; but persons who live in rotten luxury and ease while others toil, are mere turtle-doves safe only because men despise them.”
Seneca the Younger (5 BC–65) said by 65 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What profit is there in crossing the sea and in going from one city to another? If you would escape your troubles, you need not another place but another personality. Perhaps you have reached Athens, or perhaps Rhodes; choose any state you fancy, how does it matter what its character may be? You will be bringing to it your own.”
Seneca the Younger (5 BC–65) said by 65 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Two lovers, here at the corner, by the steeple, Two lovers blow together like music blowing: And the crowd dissolves about them like a sea. Recurring waves of sound break vaguely about them, They drift from wall to wall, from tree to tree.”
Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The days, the nights, flow one by one above us, The hours go silently over our lifted faces, We are like dreamers who walk beneath a sea. Beneath high walls we flow in the sun together. We sleep, we wake, we laugh, we pursue, we flee.”
Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The poet walked alone in a cold late rain, And thought his grief was like the crying of sea-birds; For his lover was dead, he never would love again.”
Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The music ends. The screen grows dark. We hurry To go our devious secret ways, forgetting Those many lives . . . We loved, we laughed, we killed, We danced in fire, we drowned in a whirl of sea-waves. The flutes are stilled, and a thousand dreams are stilled.”
Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We were making sand castles. Now we swim in the sea that swept them away”
Rem Koolhaas (born 1944) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What Ever Happened to Urbanism? The Monicelli Press, New York, 1995, pp. 959/971.
“I had a certain cetacean delicacy of movement in the wide open sea of a hundred-yard field...”
Michael Chabon (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She sang beyond the genius of the sea. The water never formed to mind or voice, Like a body wholly body, fluttering Its empty sleeves; and yet its mimic motion Made constant cry, caused constantly a cry, That was not ours although we understood, Inhuman, of the veritable ocean.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh! Blessed rage for order, pale Ramon, The maker’s rage to order words of the sea, Words of the fragrant portals, dimly-starred, And of ourselves and of our origins, In ghostlier demarcations, keener sounds.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Slowly the ivy on the stones Becomes the stones. Women become The cities, children become the fields And men in waves become the sea.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sea returns upon the men, The fields entrap the children, brick Is a weed and all the flies are caught, Wingless and withered, but living alive. The discord merely magnified. Deeper within the belly's dark Of time, time grows upon the rock.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The partaker partakes of that which changes him. The child that touches takes character from the thing, The body, it touches. The captain and his menAre one and the sailor and the sea are one.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The difficultest rigor is forthwith, On the image of what we see, to catch from that Irrational moment its unreasoning, As when the sun comes rising, when the sea Clears deeply, when the moon hangs on the wall Of heaven-haven. These are not things transformed. Yet we are shaken by them as if they were. We reason about them with a later reason.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You move me, you move me. with your buildings and your eyes Autumn woods and Winter skies. You move me, you move me. Open sea and city lights, busy streets and dizzy heights. You call me, you call me. -- The Analog Kid (1982)”
Neil Peart (1952–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All the busy little creatures chasing out their destinies. Living in their pools they soon forget about the sea... -- Natural Science (1980)”
Neil Peart (1952–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“May the blind things at the bottom of the great sea, whose bellies are circles of light,” he said, “recall with pleasure the flavor of your marrow.”
Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would like to have been present, if I could have my choice of all moments in music history, when Stokowski suddenly became conscious of his beautiful hands. That must have been a moment. Like stout Cortez [sic] on a peak in Darien (I know it was Balboa) he saw before him a limitless expanse, a whole uncharted sea that might be subjected to his influence, free from the encumbrance of a baton.”
Oscar Levant (1906–1972) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In "Music in Aspic," Harper's Magazine (October 1939) and A Smattering of Ignorance (1940); as quoted by Ray C. B. Brown in "Lightning Wit Plays On American Musical Scene; Oscar Levant Answers Unspoken Request for 'Info…
“You may hear people say that submarines have done away with the battleship, and that aircraft have annulled the mastery of the sea. That is what our pessimists say. But do you imagine that the clumsy submarine or the fragile aeroplane is really the last word of science?”
John Buchan (1875–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here is a shop of wonderment. From every land has come a prize; Rich spices from the Orient, And fruit that knew Italian skies, And figs that ripened by the sea In Smyrna, nuts from hot Brazil, Strange pungent meats from Germany, And currants from a Grecian hill.”
Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918) said by 1918 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is peddled about nowadays as philosophy, especially that of N.S. [National Socialism], but has nothing to do with the inner truth and greatness of that movement [namely the encounter between global technology and modern humanity] is nothing but fishing in that troubled sea of values and totalities.”
Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction to Metaphysics (1953) — a publication of lectures of 1935.
“There is something at work in my soul which I do not understand. I am practically industrious — painstaking, a workman to execute with perseverance and labour — but besides this there is a love for the marvellous, a belief in the marvellous, intertwined in all my projects, which hurries me out of the common pathways of men, even to the wild sea and unvisited regions I am about to explore.”
Mary Shelley (1797–1851) said by 1851 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly and exult in the agony of the torturing flames. The light of that conflagration will fade away; my ashes will be swept into the sea by the winds. My spirit will sleep in peace, or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus. Farewell.”
Mary Shelley (1797–1851) said by 1851 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No mortal ever has been, no mortal ever will be like the soul just launched on the sea of life.”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Daisy and Lily, Lazy and silly, Walk by the shore of the wan grassy sea,— Talking once more 'neath a swan-bosomed tree.”
Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Prelude to a Fairy Tale", Rustic Elegies (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927), p. 56
“Sir Beelzebub called for his syllabub in the hotel in Hell Where Proserpine first fell, Blue as the gendarmerie were the waves of the sea, Rocking and shocking the barmaid.”
Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The King of China's daughter So beautiful to see With her face like yellow water, left Her nutmeg tree. Her little rope for skipping She kissed and gave it me — Made of painted notes of singing-birds Among the fields of tea. I skipped across the nutmeg grove, — I skipped across the sea; But neither sun nor moon, my dear, Has yet caught me.”
Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tall windows show Infinity; And, hard reality, The candles weep and pry and dance Like lives mocked at by Chance.The rooms are vast as Sleep within; When once I ventured in, Chill Silence, like a surging sea, Slowly enveloped me.”
Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The cure for anything is salt water — sweat, tears, or the sea.”
Karen Blixen (1885–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Reader's Digest (April 1964)
“Do you know a cure for me?" "Why yes," he said, "I know a cure for everything. Salt water." "Salt water?" I asked him. "Yes," he said, "in one way or the other. Sweat, or tears, or the salt sea.”
Karen Blixen (1885–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“During the first quarter of the last century, seaside resorts became the fashion, even in those countries of Northern Europe within the minds of whose people the sea had hitherto held the role of the devil, the cold and voracious hereditary foe of humanity.”
Karen Blixen (1885–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life is short, and pleasures few, and holed the ship, and drowned the crew, But O! But O! How very blue the sea is!”
Clive Barker (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wert thou more fickle than the restless sea, Still should I love thee, knowing thee for such.”
William Morris (1834–1896) first seen 1867 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Life and Death of Jason, Book ix (1867)
“The South Sea Islander must leave his canoe-carving, his sweet rest, and his graceful dances, and become the slave of a slave: trousers, shoddy, rum, missionary, and fatal disease — he must swallow all this civilization in a lump, and neither himself nor we can help him now till social order displaces the hideous tyranny of gambling that has ruined him.”
William Morris (1834–1896) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How We Live and How We Might Live", Commonweal, 1887. Quoted in Gillian Naylor, William Morris by Himself: Designs and Writings (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1988)
“Across the empty garden-beds, When the Sword went out to sea.”
William Morris (1834–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For Queen Diana did my body change Into a fork-tongued dragon flesh and fell, And through the island nightly do I range, Or in the green sea mate with monsters strange, When in the middle of the moonlit night The sleepy mariner I do affright.”
William Morris (1834–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Meanwhile the dragon, seeing him clean gone, Followed him not, but crying horribly, Caught up within her jaws a block of stone And ground it into powder, then turned she, With cries that folk could hear far out at sea, And reached the treasure set apart of old, To brood above the hidden heaps of gold.”
William Morris (1834–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sleep puts out silent fingers, And leads me back to the roar Of the dead salt sea that vomits Wrecks of the past ashore.”
Francis Turner Palgrave (1824–1897) said by 1897 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Something about the way your hair falls in your face I love the shape you take when crawling towards the pillowcase You tell me where to go and Though I might leave to find it, I'll never let your head hit the bed Without my hand behind it.And if you want love, We'll make it. Swim in a deep sea Of blankets. Take all your big plans And break them, This is bound to be a while.”
John Mayer (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Turtle on its back in the desert sea / and you look like a cool drink / just slightly out of reach / Draw myself into the shell / waiting on a sign from God / or a nod from hell”
Blake Schwarzenbach (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You belong among the wildflowers. You belong in a boat out at sea. you belong with your love on your arm. You belong somewhere you feel free.”
Tom Petty (1950–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dwellers by the sea are generally superstitious; sailors always are. There is something in the illimitable expanse of sky and water that dilates the imagination.”
Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907) said by 1907 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is lovely never dies, But passes into other loveliness, Star-dust, or sea-foam, or wingëd air.”
Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907) said by 1907 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ah! County Guy, the hour is nigh, The sun has left the lea, The orange flower perfumes the bower, The breeze is on the sea.”
Walter Scott (1771–1832) said by 1832 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Sir Walter Scott
“And what of the dead? They lie without shoes in their stone boats. They are more like stone than the sea would be if it stopped. They refuse to be blessed, throat, eye and knucklebone.”
Anne Sexton (1928–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Death, I need my little addiction to you. need that tiny voice who, even as I rise from the sea, all woman, all there, says kill me, kill me.”
Anne Sexton (1928–1974) said by 1974 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's gunnery practice out at sea Just as before you went below; The world is as it used to be.”
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Two lives that once part, are as ships that divide When, moment on moment there rushes between The one and the other, a sea,— Ah, never can fall from the days that have been A gleam on the years that shall be.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) first seen 1853 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Lament", in The Poetical and Dramatic Works of Sir Edward Bulmer Lytton, Bart, Vol. III (London: Chapman & Hall, 1853), p. 226
“When stars are in the quiet skies, Then most I pine for thee; Bend on me, then, thy tender eyes, As stars look on the sea!”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Edward Bulwer Lytton
“The King of Prussia is innately a bad neighbor, but the English will also always be bad neighbors to France, and the sea has never prevented them from doing her great mischief.”
Marie Antoinette (1755–1793) said by 1793 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source