OCEAN QUOTES IV

quotations about the ocean

Ocean quote

The ocean is powerful, but not invincible. It is rich, but not inexhaustible. For humans to thrive in the coming centuries, we will have to be smarter about how we approach the 70 percent of our planet the ocean covers.

GARY E. KNELL

"Securing a Bold, Blue, and Prosperous Future for Our Ocean", National Geographic, January 27, 2017


There is an energy to the ocean in particular, an element of danger that requires a giving over of self, that makes swimming in heavy water a kind of holy communion. I see swimming as a way to get to know a place with an intimacy that I otherwise wouldn't have. To swim in the ocean is to immerse myself in wildness, to feel the way the water rises and falls like breath.

BONNIE TSUI

"In Hawaii, a Swimmer's Communion With the Wild Ocean", New York Times, February 2, 2017


What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.

WERNER HERZOG

attributed, Beowulf on Film: Adaptations and Variations

Tags: Werner Herzog


And oh! if the wave could speak in any other language than that of its own harsh thunder, how many tales of agony and suffering might it unfold!

PETER WHITTLE

Marina; or, An historical and descriptive account of Southport, Lytham, and Blackpool


There was a magic about the sea. People were drawn to it. People wanted to love by it, swim in it, play in it, look at it. It was a living thing that was as unpredictable as a great stage actor: it could be calm and welcoming, opening its arms to embrace it's audience one moment, but then could explode with its stormy tempers, flinging people around, wanting them out, attacking coastlines, breaking down islands. It had a playful side too, as it enjoyed the crowd, tossed the children about, knocked lilos over, tipped over windsurfers, occasionally gave sailors helping hands; all done with a secret little chuckle.

CECELIA AHERN

The Gift


Those who live by the sea can hardly form a single thought of which the sea would not be part.

HERMANN BROCH

foreword, The Spell


We were born before the wind
Also younger than the sun
Ere the bonnie boat was won as we sailed into the mystic
Hark, now hear the sailors cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic

VAN MORRISON

Into the Mystic


Hail, thou multitudinous ocean! Thy fluctuating waters wash the varied shores of the world, and while they disjoin nations whom a nearer connection would involve in eternal war, they circulate their arts and their labors, and give health and plenty to mankind.

CHRISTOPH STURM

attributed, Day's Collacon


The ocean is home to all of us, and some part of us knows that.

SHEILA HURST

"Author's Book Inspired By Woods Hole And The Ocean", Cape News, January 18, 2017


The ocean is the throbbing heart of the universe, and its every wave a mound over those who have no graves.

MISS C. TALBOTT

attributed, Day's Collacon