“No wind favors he who has no destined port.”
Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman
Book II, Ch. 1
Attributed
Variant: No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.
Source: The Complete Essays
“There are ships sailing to many ports, but not a single one goes where life is not painful.”
Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet
Source: The Book of Disquiet
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician
Josephus Daniels, ambassador to Mexico, sent this quotation to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, January 1, 1936, in a note of New Year greetings, with this comment: "Here is an expression from Holmes which, if it has missed you, is so good you may find a use for it in one of your 'fireside' talks". Reported in Carroll Kilpatrick, ed., Roosevelt and Daniels (1952), p. 159.
The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America
Speech at the Coliseum, Raleigh, North Carolina" (17 September 1960) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=74076 <br class="br">1960
Grace Hopper (1906–1992) American computer scientist and United States Navy officer
This saying appears to be due to John Augustus Shedd; it was quoted in "Grace Hopper : The Youthful Teacher of Us All" by Henry S. Tropp in Abacus Vol. 2, Issue 1 (Fall 1984) ISSN 0724-6722 . She did repeat this saying on multiple occasions, but she called it "a motto that has stuck with me" and did not claim coinage. Additional variations and citations may be found at Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/12/09/safe-harbor/ <br class="br">Misattributed
“Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail.”
David Hare (1947) British writer
Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare Guesses at Truth (London: Macmillan, ([1827-48] 1867) p. 159.
Misattributed
“No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.”
Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman
Book II, Ch. 1
Attributed
“We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.”
Dolly Parton (1946) American singer-songwriter and actress
“When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.”
errant consilia nostra, quia non habent quo derigantur; ignoranti quem portum petat nullus suus ventus est.
Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist
Letter LXXI: On the supreme good, line 3
Alternate translation: If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable. (translator unknown).
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius)
Context: Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.
