Sailing Quotes Inspirational: A Captivating Collection to Ignite Your Spirit

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore! Dream! Discover!"

- Mark Twain

"A ship in the harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for."

- William Shedd

"We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds."

- Aristotle Onassis

"There is no more thrilling sensation I know of than sailing. It comes as near to flying as man has got to yet – except in dreams."

- Jerome K. Jerome

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

- Mark Twain

"The boat is safer anchored at the port; but that is not the aim of boats."

- Paulo Coelho

"The only ship you can truly steer in this ocean is the one you’re sailing. Quit trying to alter the winds; harness them."

- Richelle E. Goodrich

"You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore."

- Christopher Columbus

"I wanted freedom, open air, adventure. I found it on the sea."

- Alain Gerbault

"I can’t control the wind but I can adjust the sail."

- Ricky Skaggs

"We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came."

- John F Kennedy

"Sail through the good days, and on bad days pick a spot of blue sky to steer toward."

- Richelle E. Goodrich

"Seas were meant to be sailed by those with salt in their veins, and love in their heart."

- Anthony T.Hincks

"To reach a port we must set sail – Sail, not tie at anchor. Sail, not drift."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"When I’m out sailing, I don’t wonder what heaven is like because I know."

- Anthony T. Hincks

"That’s what a ship is, you know—it’s not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that’s what a ship needs. But what a ship is, really is, is freedom."

- Captain Jack Sparrow

"You haven’t lived until you’ve sailed"

- David Sedaris

"There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

- Kenneth Grahame

"Storms draw out something out of us that calm seas don’t."

- Bill Hybels

"The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore."

- Vincent Van Gogh

"I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship."

- Louisa May Alcott

"A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."

- John A. Shedd

"You haven’t lived until you’ve sailed."

- David Sedaris

"I wanted freedom, open air and adventure. I found it on the sea."

- Alaine Gerbault

"He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea."

- Dr Thomas Fuller

"A man is never lost at sea."

- Ernest Hemingway

"We can’t direct the wind but we can adjust the sails"

- Thomas S. Monson

"To reach a port, we must set sail—sail, not tie at anchor. Sail, not drift."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"All of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea—whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came."

- John F. Kennedy

"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."

- William Arthur Ward

"A sailor is not defined as much by how many seas he has sailed than by how many storms he has overcome."

- Matshona Dhliwayo

"I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship."

- Amy March

"But that’s how it is on a sailing ship, and in this respect its journey parallels that of life: simply knowing where you want to go isn’t enough, because life is a windblown voyage, consisting mainly of the detours imposed by alternating calm and storm."

- Carsten Jensen

"Life on the blue part of the globe for eight years had suited me – the wild open spaces, the bliss of buoyancy, the volatile, soul-powered wind. Sailing had struck a nerve both primal and poetic. On and near the ocean life made sense, It made every sense work."

- Kaci Cronkhite

"For the most part, a sailboat navigates through its world of wind and water not leaving a single trace of its passage. Nothing is consumed. Nothing is altered. The winds and the water are left in exactly the same condition for the next user. Sailing is forever."

- Michael B. McPhee

"That’s what sailing is, a dance, and your partner is the sea. And with the sea you never take liberties. You ask her, you don’t tell her. You have to remember always that she’s the leader, not you. You and your boat are dancing to her tune."

- Michael Morpurgo

"The thing that most forget while dreamily looking off into the horizon for the ship of their dreams is that such ships never sail in but are built beneath their feet."

- Mike Dooley

"The sea was not meant to be controlled. The sea was meant to be sailed."

- Jon Acuff

"She loved the sea. She liked the sharp salty smell of the air, and the vastness of the horizons bounded only by a vault of azure sky above. It made her feel small, but free as well."

- George R.R. Martin

"With a frigate’s anchors for my bridle-bitts and fasces of harpoons for spurs, would I could mount that whale and leap the topmost skies, to see whether the fabled heavens with all their countless tents really lie encamped beyond my mortal sight!"

- Herman Melville

"The winds of fortune tend to favour the sails of those who politely yell out to it, ‘Nice to meet you!"

- Nabil Sabio Azadi

"A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder."

- Thomas Carlyle

"A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for."

- Grace Hopper

"If you are a boat that wants to sail in windy weather, you must be more stubborn than the waves!"

- Mehmet Murat ildan

"If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable."

- Seneca

"Never a ship sails out of bay but carries my heart as a stowaway."

- Roselle Mercier Montgomery

"At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much."

- Robin Lee Graham

"It is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures a prosperous voyage."

- George William Curtis

"The sea is the same as it has been since before men ever went on it in boats."

- Ernest Hemingway

"Maria didn’t fear the sea but, as taught by her father, she respected its power. In her experience the ocean had no intent to drown travellers."

- Sara Sheridan

"It is not that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better."

- Sir Francis Drake

"It had occurred to her many times that on board it didn’t matter where you were coming from or where you were heading. Each voyage had its own charisma. Like writing a book – word by word – or crossing a country – step by step – each minute had to be lived moment by moment."

- Sara Sheridan

"Just because a sea is calm doesn’t mean that you can believe in its stillness."

- Anthony T. Hincks

"The ocean’s currents are a turbulent emotion which man has yet to come to terms with."

- Anthony T. Hincks

"To meditate is to sail a course, to navigate, among problems many of which we are in the process of clearing up. After each one looms another, whose shores are even more attractive, more suggestive. Certainly, it requires strength and perseverance to get to windward of problems, but there is no greater delight than to reach new shores, and even to sail, as Camoëns says, “through seas that keel has never cut before.” If you will now open a bank-account of attention for me, I foretell sun-smitten landscapes and promise archipelagoes."

- José Ortega y Gasset

"Sailing unties the knots in my mind."

- Al Noble

"There’s nothing like lying flat on your back on the deck, alone except for the helmsman aft at the wheel, silence except for the lapping of the sea against the side of the ship. At that time you can be equal to Ulysses and brother to him."

- Errol Flynn

"We didn’t make it around the world, but we were able to wrap the world around us."

- Janis Couvreux

"A true sailor is one who finds love in every port."

- Tapan Ghosh

"I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky. And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by."

- John Masefield

"There, in the shimmering distance, was a sail. I stared in momentary disbelief, but there it was, one of the most beautiful sights the Pacific can ever offer — a ship in full sail edging her way through the blue waters."

- Tom Neale

"The wind tousled his hair, and Dain’s chest loosed a little as his gaze broke from the wooden maid to follow a breeze-blown gull toward the horizon. The distant salmon skies dipped over the rim of the sea, and for the first time since boarding, he wondered where the waves might take him."

- Micheline Ryckman

"I hate storms, but calms undermine my spirits."

- Bernard Moitessier

"I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it - but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

"At the end of the day…we are anchoring into the peaceful lagoon, smiling at the majestic sun and its flirting rays, slowly slipping into the glittering ballroom of immense night skies, sipping on the platinum moon liquor under the blues of rippling waves kissing my golden foot hanging over the board of gently rocking boat, and diving into the bed of galaxies whispering magical stories of their eternal lives connecting souls…till the dawn…"

- Oksana Rus

"Midnight sail and moonlight. I remember sunset, and gentle breeze. Leaving the city lights behind, and gazing at the moon. Mountains of clouds. Waves slapping our boat. It was easy to forget that love has no direction, or need for compass. Let it guide you to its destination."

- Fidelis O Mkparu

"Simply sailing in a new direction you could enlarge the world"

- Allen Curnow

"The moon was low but not full. The men set out along the dock in conversation. As they dropped onto the dark beach, Simmons declared, ‘There can be no better place in the world than this.’ Henderson had to agree. The beach was beautiful. The stars lit the sand and balmy air rode in as the waves washed up on paradise"

- Sara Sheridan

"Once we agree on the future, the present will be much easier. A captain who does not know where he wants to sail, there is no wind on Earth that will bring him there. We have first to decide where we want to go, where we want to sail."

- Ami Ayalon

"Sometimes you need to tether your boats to stop them from following your dreams."

- Anthony T. Hincks

"No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land or opened a new heaven to the human spirit."

- Helen Keller

"To young men contemplating a voyage, I would say GO."

- Joshua Slocum

"The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea."

- Isak Dinesen

"I had acquired the skills to sail a ship; I didn’t acquire the knowledge."

- Tom Holland

"The sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness."

- Joseph Conrad

"The art of the sailor is to leave nothing to chance."

- Annie Van De Wiele

"The sea hates a coward."

- Eugene O’Neill

"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."

- Jacques Cousteau

"The wind and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigator."

- Edmond Gibbon

"A sailing vessel is alive in a way that no ship with mechanical power ever be."

- Aubrey de Selincourt

"Now I remembered a captain’s honor and his only duty: to bring his crew back alive."

- Carsten Jensen

"You don’t throw a compass overboard because the ocean is calm."

- Matshona Dhliwayo

"He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast."

- Leonardo da Vinci

"We simply can’t abandon ship every time we encounter a storm in our marriage. Real love is about weathering the storms of life together."

- Seth Adam Smith

"Maybe you’re getting into the rhythm of sailing life,” says James. He looks out at the waves that are rolling in to lap against the dock. “You know, the tides going in and then out, the wind blowing east and then west, the high of a perfect day out on the water, the low of a thunderstorm or a wind that won’t go your way."

- Melissa C. Walker

"The wind does not change, the wind only blows and gusts, and it swells and swirls, and it whispers."

- Christopher X. Shade

"The cruising life isn’t for all of us. It isn’t even for most of us, but it is for some of us, and for a few of us it is essential to survival."

- Jim Trefethen

"Cold November nights. It feels as if summer never happened. The beauty of setting sun, moon, and stars. Sailing to nowhere, but finding happiness in our togetherness. Never forget what we are. Stranded hearts."

- Fidelis O. Mkparu

"How inappropriate it is to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Sea."

- Arthur C. Clarke

"I hate the strange feeling of wanting to be in two places at once, like a sailor who misses the sea as much as he misses dry land."

- Michelle Moran

"We of the sea come to know each other quickly; our loves, like our hates, are born of sudden dangers."

- Lew Wallace

"A small boat that sails the river is better than a large ship that sinks in the sea."

- Matshona Dhliwayo

"They that go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters; these men see the works of the Lord; and His wonders in the deep."

- Book of Common Prayer

"A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind."

- Webb Chiles

"The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang and has no respect."

- Carl Sandburg

"Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be Pirates"

- Mark Twain

"There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea."

- Joseph Conrad

"Go small, go simple, go now"

- Larry Pardey

"Love fades away after a point but it's each other's temperament that keeps the relationship strong and on. If you have a sense of loyalty and belonging, you'll sail through."

- Rahul Vaidya

"What do you do?” is not a question asked to define someone, because out here we’re all working the same jobs: yachties, mechanics, navigators, weather-readers, fishermen, adventure travelers, storytellers."

- Torre DeRoche

"He stared at her hard and long, as if he were gauging a cloudbank that might be worth the trouble to sail around rather than through."

- A.S. Peterson

"Most people are willing to take the Sermon on the Mount as a flag to sail under, but few will use it as a rudder by which to steer."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

"When it comes to representing the WWE, I don't like calling myself the 'face of WWE' because we have so many faces and so many superstars. We are a team, we're a roster, and we're a locker room. It absolutely takes every man to make this ship sail."

- Roman Reigns

"If we are strong, and have faith in life and its richness of surprises, and hold the rudder steadily in our hands. I am sure we will sail into quiet and pleasent waters for our old age."

- Freya Stark

"Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit. "

- Brooks Atkinson

"Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be Pirates."

- Mark Twain

"The only way to get a good crew is to marry one."

- Eric Hiscock

"No literature is richer than that of the sea. No story is more enthralling, no tradition is more secure."

- Felix Riesenberg

"To be successful at sea we must keep things simple."

- Pete Culler

"The days pass happily with me wherever my ship sails."

- Joshua Slocum

"And there’s that one particular harbour Sheltered from the wind Where the children play on the shore each day And all are safe within"

- Jimmy Buffett

"You must never despise the port you were born because no matter how small or how bad it is, it is the place you have started sailing to the universe!"

- Mehmet Murat ildan

"For all my years in public life, I have believed that America must sail toward the shores of liberty and justice for all. There is no end to that journey, only the next great voyage. We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make."

- Edward Kennedy

"And soon, too soon, we part with pain, To sail o'er silent seas again."

- Thomas Moore

"Seeing that a Pilot steers the ship in which we sail, who will never allow us to perish even in the midst of shipwrecks, there is no reason why our minds should be overwhelmed with fear and overcome with weariness."

- John Calvin

"Separately there was only wind, water, sail, and hull, but at my hand the four had been given purpose and direction."

- Lowell Thomas

"I had acquired the skills to sail a ship; I didn't acquire the knowledge."

- Tom Holland

"Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail."

- David Hare

"The men nodded vigorously at me. When they took hold of me and lifted me in their strong arms, I thought nothing of it. I thought they were helping me. I was so full of trust in them that I felt grateful as they carried me in the air. Only when they threw me overboard did I begin to have doubts."

- Yann Martel

"For those of you who wish to get a feel for it, get in the car and bring it up to fifty miles an hour and then stick your head and arms outside and, while driving, try to fold up a simple bath towel in the wind"

- Gary Paulsen

"You sail into the harbor, and Staten Island is on your left, and then you see the Statue of Liberty. This is what everyone in the world has dreams of when they think about New York. And I thought, 'My God, I'm in Heaven. I'll be dancing down Fifth Avenue like Fred Astaire with Ginger Rogers.'"

- Frank McCourt

"We each have our oceans and seas that we travel on."

- Anthony T Hincks

"I've always wanted to sail around the world in a handmade boat, and I built a boat."

- Will Ferrell

"Thus, I steer my bark, and sail On even keel, with gentle gale."

- Matthew Green

"Charter boats are like books with no covers."

- Tania Aebi

"Thing about boats is, you can always sell them if you don’t like them. Can’t sell kids."

- Lin Pardey

"What if others suffer shipwreck, yet none that sail with Jesus have ever been stranded yet."

- Charles Spurgeon

"The white sail of his soul has rounded the promontory - death."

- William Alexander

"Less judgment than wit is more sail than ballast."

- William Penn

"We were wavering around like a ship without a sail."

- Judy Holliday

"The good seaman weathers the storm he cannot avoid, and avoids the storm he cannot weather."

- Unknown

"A bad day sailing is 100 times better than a good day at work."