Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“Although I am small, I am skilful. From the sea and the mountain, From the river's depth God gives His gifts to the blessed.”
Taliesin (518–599) said by 599 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life is as the sea, art a ship in which man conquers life's crushing formlessness, reducing it to a course, a series of swells, tides and wind currents inscribed on a chart.”
Ralph Ellison (1914–1994) first seen 1945 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Richard Wright's Blues" (1945), in The Collected Essays, ed. John F. Callahan (New York: Modern Library, 1995), p. 133.
“Thrown like a star in my vast sleep I open my eyes to take a peep To find that I was by the sea Gazing with tranquillity. 'Twas then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man Came singing songs of love...”
“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) first seen 1796 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his Italian friend, Philip Mazzei (1796)
“I knew the Spring was come. I knew it even Better than all by this, that through my chase In bush and stone and hill and sea and heaven I seem'd to see and follow still your face. Your face my quarry was. For it I rode, My horse a thing of wings, myself a god.”
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840–1922) first seen 1914 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: St. Valentine's Day, from Collected Poems (1914)
“The winds are sometimes sad to me, The starry spaces, full of fear; Mine is the sorrow on the sea, And mine the sigh of places drear. Some players upon plaintive strings Publish their wistfulness abroad; I have not spoken of these things, Save to one man, and unto God.”
Lionel Johnson (1867–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sea has no renewal, no forgetting, no variety of death, is silent with the silence of a single note.”
Basil Bunting (1900–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And who will join this standing up and the ones who stood without sweet company will sing and sing back into the mountains and if necessary even under the sea we are the ones we have been waiting for”
June Jordan (1936–2002) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Poem for South African Women", Passion (1980); on South African women protesting the dompas laws of apartheid.
“The land is numb. It stands beneath the feet, and one may come Walking securely, till the sea extends Its limber margin, and precision ends.”
Yvor Winters (1900–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm just a red nigger who love the sea, I had a sound colonial education, I have Dutch, nigger, and English in me, and either I'm nobody, or I'm a nation.”
Derek Walcott (1930–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any individual who is sincerely searching for God, on land or in the sea is also worthy of respect.”
Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi (1941–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sun-swept beaches with a light wind blowing From the immense blue circle of the sea, And the soft thunder where long waves whiten — These were the same for Sappho as for me. Two thousand years — much has gone by forever, Change takes the gods and ships and speech of men — But here on the beaches that time passes over The heart aches now as then.”
Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Like most sharks, Margaret liked to think of herself as a victim of the cruel sea.”
Craig Ferguson (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have drowned in the big sea now I find I'm still alive And I'm coming up forever shadows all behind me ecstacy to come”
Mike Scott (Scottish musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once you were tethered now you are free That was the river this is the sea.”
Mike Scott (Scottish musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You're trying to make sense of something that you just don't see You're trying to make sense now and you know you once held the key But that was the river this is the sea.”
Mike Scott (Scottish musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At sea on a ship in a thunderstorm on the very night the Christ was born a sailor heard from overhead a mighty voice cry "Pan is Dead!" So follow Christ as best you can Pan is dead — Long live Pan!”
Mike Scott (Scottish musician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Theres so many fish in the sea That only rise up in the sweat and smoke like mercury”
Elvis Costello (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The picture [Friedrich's painting: 'The Cross on the Baltic Sea' ] for your friend has already been sketched out, but there is no church in it, not a single tree or plant, not a blade of grass. On a bare and rocky seashore there stands, high up, the cross - for those who see it that way, a consolation, and for those who don't see it that way, just a cross.”
Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) first seen 1815 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote from Friedrich's letter to Louise Seidler, 1815; as cited in Romanticism and realism : the mythology of nineteenth-century art - (from Chapter: Friedrich and the language of Landscape), Charles Rosen and Henri Zer…
“Though it lash the shallows that line the beach, Afar from the great sea-deeps, There is never a storm whose might can reach Where the vast leviathan sleeps. Like a mighty thought in a mighty mind In the clear cold depths he swims; Whilst above him the pettiest form of his kind With a dash o'er the surface skims.”
John Boyle O'Reilly (1844–1890) said by 1890 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Say, its only a paper moon Sailing over a cardboard sea But it wouldn't be make-believe If you believed in me.”
Yip Harburg (1896–1981) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: It's Only a Paper Moon" (1933) (co-written with Billy Rose) - Nat King Cole version
“We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go Always a little further; it may be Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow Across that angry or that glimmering sea,White on a throne or guarded in a cave There lies a prophet who can understand Why men were born: but surely we are brave, Who take the Golden Road to Samarkand.”
James Elroy Flecker (1884–1915) said by 1915 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cf. George MacDonald Fraser, Flashman at the Charge (1973)
“The account of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as the manuscripts are inaccurately designated, and of the half a century of intense research that followed, is in itself a fascinating as well as an exasperating story.”
Geza Vermes (1924–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The absence from the Dead Sea Scrolls of historical texts proper should not surprise us. Neither in the inter-Testamental period, nor in earlier biblical times, was the recording of history as we understand it a strong point among the Jews.”
Geza Vermes (1924–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O Sleepless as the river under thee, Vaulting the sea, the prairies’ dreaming sod, Unto us lowliest sometime sweep, descend And of the curveship lend a myth to God.”
Hart Crane (1899–1932) said by 1932 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There’s a magic in the distance, where the sea-line meets the sky.”
Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once more I hear the everlasting sea Breathing beneath the mountain's fragrant breast”
Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We plucked down all His altars, left not one Save where, perchance (and ah, the joy was fleet), We laid our garlands in the sun At the white Sea-born's feet.”
Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Heart of my heart, we are one with the wind, One with the clouds that are whirled o'er the lea, One in many, O broken and blind, One as the waves are at one with the sea! Ay! when life seems scattered apart, Darkens, ends as a tale that is told, One, we are one, O heart of my heart, One, still one, while the world grows old.”
Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thou whose deep ways are in the sea, Whose footsteps are not known, To-night a world that turned from Thee Is waiting — at Thy Throne.The towering Babels that we raised Where scoffing sophists brawl, The little Antichrists we praised — The night is on them all.”
Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.”
Jesus (6 BC–33) said by 33 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.”
Jesus (6 BC–33) said by 33 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever; One foot in sea, and one on shore, To one thing constant never.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Thomas Percy
“Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral 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.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Autumn has come; Storming now heaveth the deep sea with foam, Yet would I gratefully lie there, Willingly die there.”
Esaias Tegnér (1782–1846) said by 1846 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the whole history of the sea, there is little to equal the wonderful behavior of these humble players.”
Steve Turner (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If any glory at all attaches to the awful tragedy of the sea about which the world is still talking, it circles round the heads of these heroic bandsmen who played the mighty vessel to its doom”
Steve Turner (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We came from the sea originally, now we're going back in it. Don't go in it, unless you're in a boat.”
Karl Pilkington (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They keep saying that sea levels are rising an all this. It's nowt to do with the icebergs melting, it's because there's too many fish in it. Get rid of some of the fish and the water will drop. Simple. Basic science.”
Karl Pilkington (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is a magnificent country, lonely, grand in scale, stretching for mile upon mile,the clear blue air stabbed with peaks of snow, where the sun glints on the ice surfaces, green as sea ice, breath taking in its scope.”
Judy LaMarsh (1924–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All the ingenuity, all the high-tech gear, all the jury-rigging—sometimes the sea would rip it all away until there was only you, the Creator, and His mercy.”
Abby Sunderland (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“After the week of stormy weather, she set sail under sunny skies, on a glassy sea with a big swell running.”
Abby Sunderland (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Being at sea is like watching the whole world in high-definition.”
Abby Sunderland (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Terror ripped through me as I was falling, falling, falling toward the sea.”
Abby Sunderland (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Marianne tried to stay hopeful. But slowly her imagination bulldozed her optimism aside and pushed her mind into a dark place. There, she saw Abby tethered to the boat in her bright red foul-weather gear, being dragged along dead in the sea.”
Abby Sunderland (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The things that happen on the sea take you beyond yourself, beyond human capability.”
Abby Sunderland (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Although efficient markets people still go around saying there is a "mountain" of evidence supporting their hypothesis, the truth of the matter is that it's a very old mountain that's now eroding rapidly into the sea.”
Robert Haugen (1942–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When the rain came down, I was standing in the green My soul was touched by every tree that my eyes could see I am in peace, in love, in harmony when the rain comes downWhen the rain came down — melded with my tears When the rain came down — flow away the fears When the rain came down — bigger than the sea When the rain came down — then came me.”
Happy Rhodes (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sea is at its best at London, near midnight, when you are within the arms of a capacious chair, before a glowing fire, selecting phases of the voyages you will never make.”
H. M. Tomlinson (1873–1958) first seen 1912 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Sea and the Jungle (London: Duckworth & Co., 1912), ch. 1, p. 27
“Race the roaring Fraser to the sea.”
Stan Rogers (1949–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source