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“When by-and-by the Chinese know their power, they hae only to walk slowly westwards and, like the locusts in Egypt, no Pharaohs in Europe with all their mighty boats will stop them. They won't want to fire guns or bombs. They'll just all walk along and smother Europe. (Richard Hough, First Sea Lord, p. 35)”
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920) said by 1920 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's a well-known fact that no novel is taken seriously in India until a good deal of research has gone into it. This stay in the Taj will be my research. Going down the stairs will be research. So will looking out at the sea.”
Amit Chaudhuri (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wanted to do a show about a character that was an innocent, and so I focused on a sea sponge because it's a funny animal, a strange one, I thought he was a funny, nerdy, squeaky-clean square.”
Stephen Hillenburg (1961–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O Canada! Where pines and maples grow. Great prairies spread and lordly rivers flow. How dear to us thy broad domain, From East to Western Sea, Thou land of hope for all who toil! Thou True North, strong and free!”
Robert Stanley Weir (1856–1926) said by 1926 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“O Canada! Beneath thy shining skies May stalwart sons and gentle maidens rise, To keep thee steadfast through the years From East to Western Sea, Our own beloved native land! Our True North, strong and free!”
Robert Stanley Weir (1856–1926) said by 1926 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[on the high seas] the English are increasing their insolence and barbarity. [T]hey cut to pieces the captain of a ship coming from Spain and threw all the crew into the sea for having defended themselves valiantly.”
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) first seen 1627 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to Pierre Dupuy, 7 June 1627; as quoted by Simon Schrama, in Rembrandt's eyes, Alfred A. Knopf - Borzoi Books, New York 1999, p. 244
“A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself. He can live without hope, without friends, without books, even without music, as long as he can listen to his own thoughts and to the singing of a bird outside his window and to the far-away voice of the sea.”
Axel Munthe (1857–1949) first seen 1928 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Preface, 1928
“To depart while seated or standing is all one. All I shall leave behind me Is a heap of bones. In empty space I twist and soar And come down with the roar of thunder To the sea.”
Koho Kenichi (1241–1316) said by 1316 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A raging sea thrown from the deck a block of ice.”
Choha (1703–1740) said by 1740 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Japanese Death Poems. Compiled by Yoel Hoffmann. ISBN 978-0-8048-3179-6. Cited in: Eugene Thacker. "Black Illumination: Zen and the poetry of death," Special to the JAPAN TIMES, July 2, 2016.
“[A]ny seagoing vessel—commercial or military, from the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea to the Caribbean—could be monitored by the United States Navy, who could choose to watch it, stop it, or sink it.”
George Friedman (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sea is an emptiness where you see only your own reflection, with a lot of time to think about what's important.”
Reese Palley (1922–2015) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: https://www.philly.com The Enquirer June 5 2015
“Families who have never worked a day in their lives having 4 or 5 kids and the rest of us having 1 or 2 means it’s not long before we’re drowning in a vast sea of unemployed wasters that we pay to keep! Iain Duncan Smith’s cap proposal is spot on!”
Ben Bradley (politician) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I now understand the need for faith—pure, blind, fly-in-the-face-of-reason faith—as a small life preserver in the wild and endless sea of a universe ruled by unfeeling laws and totally indifferent to the small, reasoning beings that inhabit it.”
Dan Simmons (1948–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Beware of assuming the sterile attitude of a spectator, for life is not a spectacle, a sea of miseries is not a proscenium, a man screaming is not a dancing bear.”
Aimé Césaire (1913–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's the fishing interests, for instance. The whole world demands Columbia River salmon because it knows that it is the best that is canned. The whole world will be at San Francisco, and will be interested in knowing how the rich, red, finely flavored Chinook finds its way from the sea to its tables.”
George W. Joseph (1872–1930) said by 1930 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He who seeks pearls immerses himself in the sea.”
Al-Shafi‘i (767–820) said by 820 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now was it night, when in deepe rest enrol'd Are waves and windes, and mute the world doth show Weari'd the beasts, and those that bottome hold Of billow'd sea, and of moyst streames that flow, And who are lodged in cave, or pen'd in fold, And painted flyers in oblivion low, Under their secret horrours silenced, Stilled their cares, and their harts suppelled.”
Richard Carew (antiquary) first seen 1594 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Godfrey of Bulloigne, or the Recoverie of Hierusalem (1594), Canto II, stanza 96
“The bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) is a creature of superlatives. Growing to 1500 pounds (700 kilos), traveling on transoceanic migrations, and reputedly capable of swimming 50 miles (90 km) per hour, it is one of the largest, most wide-ranging, and fastest of animals. To anyone who has seen this saber-finned giant explode through the surface of the sea, it is among the most magnificent.”
Carl Safina (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only a little while ago the oceans seemed unassailable—too big and stable to be hurt by man, too teeming with life to let him ever go hungry. But now we know better. Suddenly, even the myriad creatures of the sea are suffering from human intemperance. The offal of cities circles the world in global currents; beaches are strewn with the cast-off artifacts of men two thousand miles away.”
Archie Carr (1909–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sea turtles of all kinds are peculiarly prone to eat plastic scraps and other buoyant debris and to tangle themselved in lines and netting discarded by fishermen, and records of such mishaps have increased markedly in recent years.”
Archie Carr (1909–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Released from the land Indomitable heeled over to the thrust of canvas and rudder, the sea almost brushing her lee gunports while she came about, sails thundering as fore and mainsails were hauled and beaten into submission.”
Douglas Reeman (1924–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As the wind and quarter-sea had mounted the Indomitable, big though she was, had seemed to bound from trough to trough like the lion she followed, sail and spindrift pouring from the bulging canvas like tropical rain.”
Douglas Reeman (1924–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Arms and the man I sing who first from Troy Came to the Italian and Lavinian shores, Exiled by fate; much tossed on land and sea By power divine and cruel Juno's rage; Much too in war he suffered, till he reared A city and to Latium brought his gods: Whence sprung the Latin progeny, the kings Of Alba, and the walls of towering Rome.”
Joseph Trapp (1679–1747) said by 1747 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is not genuine scholarship! Real research is a coming-to-grips with phenomena. This, as a transcription of the ocean’s infinitely various text, is a fraud, an egregious counterfeit, which patly reduces the Primary Sea’s endlessness to a cozy finitude, such as it pleased this puny entity to regard it, for he must have had but a feeble stomach for enterprise of a dark or difficult kind.”
Michael Shea (1946–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As the plane climbed over the town and swung above the sea I knew how it felt to go into exile.”
Wilfred Thesiger (1910–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“GARDEN OF URANIUM: I moved to a house in Lincolnshire. The government were threatening to dump "low level" nuclear waste about fifteen miles away. The plans were dropped a few months before the last general election. The proposals now seem to have resurfaced somewhere under the North Sea! (among other sites proposed since the election)”
Roy Harper (singer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“..And with dream awakened eyes she saw all the beauty around her, saw the sea, felt the sun, and knew she had to vanish for a while from the human surface and make every sacrifice in order to create her world anew out of the depths. And from that came Life or Theater???”
Charlotte Salomon (1917–1943) first seen 1943 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quote, probably 1943, in Charlotte Salomon: Life? or Theatre?, (ed.) Judith C. E. Belinfante et al, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1998, ISBN 0-900946-66-0, p. 38; as cited om Wikipedia
“..Thus in the presence of the scorching sun, purple sea, and luxuriant blossoms, the memory of an experience of her fervid early love [Daberlohn = Alfred Wolfsohn ] came back to her. And she tried to visualize that face, that figure. And Io, she succeeded, and she noticed that this was a very interesting occupation. For she discovered that that figure...”
Charlotte Salomon (1917–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...his book, Orpheus, or the Way to a Death Mask, of which he had said that he regretted not having written it as a poem. And with dream-awakened eyes she saw all the beauty around her, saw the sea, felt the sun, and knew: she had to vanish for a while from the human plane and make every sacrifice in order to create her world anew out of the depths.”
Charlotte Salomon (1917–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“10 February 2014 in response to "Where were the King and Queen planning to go when they lost their lives out at sea?" speaking of Chris Buck”
Jennifer Lee (filmmaker) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Living creatures, sea gulls, soaring lazily and gracefully overhead. Living creatures, a group of girls, walking by, giggling and jiggling. The lazy rhythm of the waves, the sun’s warmth and the sky’s blueness. I waved my arm at it. “All this, M’bassi. All this and the stars too. Isn’t it enough without having to invent a religion and a God?”
Fredric Brown (1906–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 3, “1999” (p. 192)
“..at home [in Brussels, 1869] I was messing around all winter long with a painting; it was a coast, but painted so primitive. Then I said: you must see the sea in front of you, every day, you have to live with it, otherwise it doesn't work. Then we went to The Hague. (translation from original Dutch: Fons Heijnsbroek)”
Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831–1915) first seen 1869 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (original Dutch: citaat van Hendrik Willem Mesdag, in het Nederlands:) ..thuis [in Brussel, 1869] had ik een heelen winter aan een werkstuk zitten scharrelen; 't was een kust, maar zo naiëf geschilderd. Toen zei ik: je …
“On 21 June 1947... man named Dahl was out in the Tacoma Harbour Patrol boat near Maury Island. He looked up and saw six large disks about 2,000 feet above him. Five of them were slowly circling one that seemed to be in difficulties. Slowly they sank to within 500 feet of the sea, without a sound or whisper.”
George Adamski (1891–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was that I felt that I'd done as much as I could do there [in England]. I didn't know what direction I could go, apart from across the sea.”
Dusty Springfield (1939–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our future is imperiled, our economy is fragile, and frontline communities are vulnerable to major threats from rising sea levels to lead in our water. A #GreenNewDeal is a common sense, moral solution to fix these issues with the urgency they demand.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born 1989) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Twitter post, (22 February 2019)
“This is a technique of the GOP, to take dry humor + sarcasm literally and ‘fact check’ it. Like the ‘world ending in 12 years’ thing, you’d have to have the social intelligence of a sea sponge to think it’s literal. But the GOP is basically Dwight from The Office so who knows.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (born 1989) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Just Kidding, Says Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez”, Kyle Smith, National Review (May 13, 2019), tweet from May 12, 2019
“Surround me with your boundless love Confound me with your boundless loveI was drowning in the sea, Lost as I could beWhen you found me With your boundless love”
John Prine (1946–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I never had any ambition other than to go to sea.”
Arthur Rostron (1869–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The history of Sea Power is largely, though by no means solely, a narrative of contests between nations, of mutual rivalries, of violence frequently culminating in war.”
Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840–1914) first seen 1660 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 (Boston, MA: Little Brown, 1890), 1.
“It may be urged that, with the extensive sea−coast of the United States, a blockade of the whole line cannot be effectively kept up. No one will more readily concede this than officers who remember how the blockade of the Southern coast alone was maintained.”
Alfred Thayer Mahan (1840–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...our progenitors, the kings of England, have before these times been lords of the English sea on every side...and it would very much grieve us if in this kind of defence our royal honour should be lost.”
Edward III of England (1312–1377) first seen 1336 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his admirals (18 August 1336), quoted in Ian Mortimer, The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation (Vintage, 2008), p. 130
“The personal paradigm shift is like a sea-crossing to the New World. The immigrant, try as he might, cannot persuade all his friends and loved ones to make the journey. Those who stay behind cannot understand why the familiar did not hold the immigrant. Why did he abandon his accustomed homeland? Saddest of all, how could their affections not hold him?”
Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In fact the sea wasn't open.”
Dominic Raab (born 1974) first seen 2021 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interviewed by BBC Breakfast and talking about his holiday in Crete during the , cited in "Dominic Raab: With hindsight I wouldn't have gone on holiday" BBC News (25 August 2021)
“We are as near to heaven by sea as by land!”
Humphrey Gilbert (1539–1583) first seen 1583 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dying words as his frigate Squirrel sank in the Atlantic Ocean near the Azores, 5 August 1583, Quoted in Richard Hakluyt, The Third and Last Volume of the Voyages of the English Nation (1600). Chamber's Dictionary of Qu…
“[the SarasvatI is] “prominent in Book 7: it flows from the mountains to the sea (7.95.2) - which would put the battle of 10 kings prior to 1500 BC or so due to the now well-documented dessication of the SarasvatI”. (p. 335)”
Michael Witzel (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Given Greater Sunrise falls within Timor Leste, why does Australia get any (oil royalties)? It was 50-50 when there were no (sea) boundaries. After they agreed on the boundaries everything was different.”
Mari Alkatiri (born 1949) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mari Alkatiri (2019) cited in: "Timor’s former PM: Australia’s spies didn’t fool me" in The Australian, 28 August 2019.
“Barrabás came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy. She was already in the habit of writing down important matters, and afterward, when she was mute, she also recorded trivialities, never suspecting that fifty years later I would use her notebooks to reclaim the past and overcome terrors of my own. (first lines)”
Isabel Allende (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...If we fail to act to bring down our carbon emissions over the next decade, this will lock in disastrous melting of the ice sheets, sea level rise, and a rise in devastating weather extremes down the road. (2019)”
Michael E. Mann (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In this sea where rise up storms of 'me' and 'we', some of the population find escaping not so easy. No one's should be burdened by carrying another, every wave is a bridge, to be crossing over...'me'.”
Abdul-Qādir Bedil (1644–1721) said by 1721 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All this is strolling of the sea, neither any shore nor dinghy Into the waters of oneness, flying away this very entity Cease the moment forget all else, all that bygone history The future and past abandon, Sachal ask for frenzy.”
Sachal Sarmast (1739–1829) said by 1829 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source