Quotes about the sea

„He took a beating twice at sea, And threw two fleets away. So now to achieve one victory, He tosses dice all day.“

—  Augustus founder of Julio-Claudian dynasty and first emperor of the Roman Empire -63 - 14 BC

Postquam bis classe victus naves perdidit, Aliquando ut vincat, ludit assidue aleam.
A popular rhyme at the time of the Sicilian war, mocking Augustus' habit of playing dice; in Suetonius, Divus Augustus, paragraph 70. Translation: Robert Graves, 1957.

„Translation: The belief in a certain idea gives to the researcher the support for his work. Without this belief he would be lost in a sea of doubts and insufficiently verified proofs.“

—  Konrad Zuse German computer scientist and engineer 1910 - 1995

Der Glaube an eine bestimmte Idee gibt dem Forscher den Rückhalt für seine Arbeit. Ohne diesen Glauben wäre er verloren in einem Meer von Zweifeln und halbgültigen Beweisen.
Attributed in Konrad Zuse http://www.dpma.de/ponline/erfindergalerie/bio_zuse.html on "Die Erfindergalerie", dpma.de, 2008

„Beware, my body and my soul, beware above all of crossing your arms and assuming the sterile attitude of the spectator, for life is not a spectacle, a sea of griefs is not a proscenium, and a man who wails is not a dancing bear.“

—  Aimé Césaire Martiniquais politician 1913 - 2008

Source: Notebook of a Return to the Native Land

„The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade.“

—  Andrew Marvell English metaphysical poet and politician 1621 - 1678

The Garden (1650-1652)
Context: Meanwhile the mind from pleasure less
Withdraws into its happiness;
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade.

„I like to help the whales, the otters, and the dolphins. When I`m acting and I take a break, the first thing on my list is spending time by the sea.“

—  Leonardo DiCaprio American actor and film producer 1974

„You are the gull, Jo, strong and wild, fond of the storm and the wind, flying far out to sea, and happy all alone.“

—  Louisa May Alcott, book Little Women

Source: Little Women

„From my early youth, since I attained the age of puberty before I was twenty, until the present time when I am over fifty, I have ever recklessly launched out into the midst of these ocean depths, I have ever bravely embarked on this open sea, throwing aside all craven caution; I have poked into every dark recess, I have made an assault on every problem, I have plunged into every abyss, I have scrutinized the creed of every sect, I have tried to lay bare the inmost doctrines of every community. All this have I done that I might 68 distinguish between true and false, between sound tradition and heretical innovation. Whenever I meet one of the Batiniyah, I like to study his creed; whenever I meet one of the Zahiriyah, I want to know the essentials of his belief. If it is a philosopher, I try to become acquainted with the essence of his philosophy; if a scholastic theologian I busy myself in examining his theological reasoning; if a Sufi, I yearn to fathom the secret of his mysticism; if an ascetic (muta'ahhid) , I investigate the basis of his ascetic practices; if one ofthe Zanadiqah or Mu'attilah, I look beneath the surface to discover the reasons for his bold adoption of such a creed.“

—  Abu Hamid al-Ghazali Persian Muslim theologian, jurist, philosopher, and mystic 1058 - 1111

The Deliverance from Error https://www.amazon.com/Al-Ghazalis-Path-Sufism-Deliverance-al-Munqidh/dp/1887752307, p: 20-21

„You've got a degree in philosophy,
So you think you're cleverer than me.
But I'm not just some drama queen,
Cos it's where you're at not where you've been.
So what do you expect from me,
To hold your head above the sea?
And there are you even though you're bigger,
Cos don't you know you crush my tiny figure?
And anyway we're still so young
And this isn't yet the day.
I can't help you if you won't help yourself.“

—  Amy Winehouse English singer and songwriter 1983 - 2011

Help Yourself
Song lyrics, Frank (2003)

„I am the bond slave of my devotee. I love devotion. He who withdraws his heart from the world and loves me is my true lover and he merges in Me like a river in the sea.“

—  Sai Baba of Shirdi Hindu and muslim saint 1835 - 1918

Saying stated to his disciples

„The Sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.“

—  Jacques-Yves Cousteau French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher 1910 - 1997

„When travel outside the city is desired, computer-guided vehicles for land, sea, air, space and beyond can transport passengers and freight. For rapid movement of passengers on land across via ducts, bridges, and tunnels, high-speed mag-lev trains span great distances and will efficiently replace most aircraft transportation.“

—  Jacque Fresco American futurist and self-described social engineer 1916 - 2017

Designing the Future (2007)

„Eternity is the sun
mixed
with the sea“

—  Arthur Rimbaud French Decadent and Symbolist poet 1854 - 1891

„The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.“

—  Vladimir Nabokov, book The Real Life of Sebastian Knight

Source: The Real Life of Sebastian Knight

„I'm a teacher. A teacher is someone who leads. There is no magic here. I do not walk on water. I do not part the sea. I just love children.“

—  Marva Collins American schoolteacher 1936 - 2015

„It had been a long journey. Tien Pao had lost count of all the days and nights. But all those nights when the horns of the new moon had stood dimly in the sky, Tien Pao and his father and mother had pushed the sampan on and on against the currents of the endless rivers. Day and night. There was no stopping even at night. "We won't stop until we drop," Tien Pao's father had kept saying over and over. "And we won't drop until we are far inside this great land of China. Far from the sea-for where the sea is, there the Japanese invaders are."“

—  Meindert DeJong, book The House of Sixty Fathers

The House of Sixty Fathers (1956)

„as small as a world and as large as alone
For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea“

—  E.E. Cummings American poet 1894 - 1962

Variant: For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
It's always our self we find in the sea.
Source: 100 Selected Poems

„Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backward.“

—  E.E. Cummings American poet 1894 - 1962

Variant: Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backwards.

„The black earth drinks, in turn
The trees drink up the earth.
The sea the torrents drinks, the sun the sea,
And the moon drinks the sun.
Why, comrades, do ye flout me,
If I, too, wish to drink?“

—  Anacreon Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and hymns -570 - -485 BC

Odes, 21.

„The beauty, the spirit of Germany, its sun, moon, stars, rocks, seas and rivers can never be expressed this way..“

—  Caspar David Friedrich Swedish painter 1774 - 1840

Quote of Friedrich, shortly after his return in 1798; as quoted in C. D. Friedrich by H.W. Grohn; Kindlers Malerei Lexicon, Zurich, 1965, II p. 46; as cited & transl. by Linda Siegel in Caspar David Friedrich and the Age of German Romanticism, Boston Branden Press Publishers, 1978, p. 17
Friedrich's quote is referring to the typical landscape and atmosphere of Denmark, he intensively experienced for four years. In 1798 Friedrich left Copenhagen and returned to Germany, to Dresden
1794 - 1840