100 Best Ship Quotes For All Sailors-In-The-Making

Srija Chanda
Dec 12, 2023 By Srija Chanda
Originally Published on Mar 10, 2021
Edited by Jacob Fitzbright
A brown ship with red sails sailing towards the harbour
Age: 0-99
Read time: 12.5 Min

A ship is a vessel that has proved effective time and time again for transport on the sea.

Apart from coming in various shapes and sizes, these marine vessels have different utilities. Some are used for shipping, while others for sailing and traveling, and many are used in the military.

So, it is expected that there will be many quotes on the different aspects of a ship. Here are some of them that we are shipping to you and we dearly hope that you like these great ship quotes, cruise ship quotes, shipping quotes, sinking ship quotes, and many others.

For more quotes like ship quotes, take a look at  sailing quotes and boat quotes.

Best Ship Quotes

A sailboat sailing in water

Set sail on this list of the best ship and shipping quotes.

1.  "We did not all come over on the same ship, but we are all in the same boat."

- Bernard Baruch.

2. "When you can’t wait for your ship to come in, you’ve got to row out to it."

- Greer Garson.

3. "The cabin of a small yacht is truly a wonderful thing; not only will it shelter you from a tempest, but from the other troubles in life, it is a safe retreat."

- Lewis Francis Herreshoff

4. "And your love holds my ship steady in those turbulent waters of life when even the moon does not show her face to the world!"

- Avijeet Das

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

- Louisa May Alcott.

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

- John A. Shedd.

7. "A ship on the port always waits for you to sail to the oceans!"

- Mehmet Murat Ildan.

8. "One ship drives east and other drives west by the same winds that blow. It's the set of the sails and not the gales that determines the way they go."

- Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

9. "Life’s roughest storms prove the strength of our anchors."

- Unknown.*

10. "When all seems to be against you, remember, a ship sometimes has to sail against the current, not with it."

- Matshona Dhliwayo.

11. "If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever."

- Thomas Aquinas.

12. "I never predict freight rates; nobody can do that."

- Søren Skou.

13. "A modern fleet of ships does not so much make use of the sea as exploit a highway."

- Joseph Conrad.

14. "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.

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

- Matshona Dhliwayo.

16. "Don't give up the ship!"

- James Lawrence.

17. "If you want to find out who your real friends are, sink the ship. The first ones to jump aren't your friends."

- Marilyn Manson.

18. "Loving someone who doesn't love you is like waiting for a ship at the airport."

- Zayn Malik.

19. "When I die, it will be a shipwreck, and as when a huge ship sinks, many people all around will be sucked down with it."

- Pablo Picasso.

20. "You wouldn't abandon ship in a storm just because you couldn't control the winds."

- Thomas More .

21. "If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea."

- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

22. "Only the ship is made of books, its sails thousands of overlapping pages, and the sea it floats upon is dark black ink."

- Erin Morgenstern.

23. "Even offshore bankers have not developed a system as intricately elusive as the flag of convenience, under which ships can fly the flag of a state that has nothing to do with its owner, cargo, crew, or route."

- Rose George.

24. "A ship that sails without a compass will get lost at sea."

- Matshona Dhliwayo.

25. "Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship."

- Omar N. Bradley.

Famous Ship Quotes

Scroll down to take a look at some famous quotes on this marine vessel. One of these ship quotes just might be your favorite quote.

26. "Don't spend your entire life building a ship, without ever tasting the salt of the ocean.”

- Alexander Den Heijer.

27. "Ships are but boards, sailors but men."

William Shakespeare, 'The Merchant Of Venice'.

28. "Anchor as though you plan to stay for weeks, even if you intend to leave in an hour."

- Unknown.*

29. "When I lost my rifle, the Army charged me 85 dollars. That is why in the Navy the Captain goes down with the ship."

- Dick Gregory.

30. "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."

- Douglas Adams.

31. "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

- Kenneth Grahame.

32. "The storm only comes to teach you how to skillfully sail your ship."

- Matshona Dhliwayo.

33. "It takes four months to ship food aid and 40 percent of the cost is in the shipping. People cannot eat shipping costs."

- Andrew Natsios.

34. "The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas."

- Maya Angelou.

35. "One leak will sink a ship: and one sin will destroy a sinner."

- John Bunyan.

36. "The true ship is the shipbuilder."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

37. "Some people could look at a mud puddle and see an ocean with ships."

- Zora Neale Hurston.

38. "Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope."

- Epictetus.

39. "I want to be like water. I want to slip through fingers, but hold up a ship."

- Michelle Williams.

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

- Joshua Slocum.

41. "A ship is always referred to as 'she' because it costs so much to keep one in paint and powder."

- Chester W. Nimitz.

42. "Your mind is a ship; it can sail across the universe as long as you don't allow negative thoughts to sink it."

- Matshona Dhliwayo.

43. "Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Give him a fishing lesson and he'll sit in a boat drinking beer every weekend."

- Alex Blackwell.

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

- Thomas Carlyle.

45. "If it's sent by ship then it's a cargo, if it's sent by road then it's a shipment."

- Dave Allen.

46. "History is the ship carrying living memories to the future."

- Stephen Spender.

47. "Admire a small ship, but put your freight in a large one; for the larger the load, the greater will be the profit upon profit."

- Hesiod.

48. "There is 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."

- Errol Flynn.

49. "There are ships sailing to many ports, but not a single one goes where life is not painful."

- Fernando Pessoa.

50. "If a ship is strong, the ocean's tides do not bother it."

- Matshona Dhliwayo.

Inspirational Sailing And Sailor Quotes

If you are a sailor hidden in you, seek that person out with these quotes on sailing.

51. "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.

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

- William Arthur Ward.

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

- Webb Chiles.

54. "It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk."

-Sir Francis Chichester.

55. "The sooner we learn to be jointly responsible, the easier the sailing will be."

- Ella Maillart.

56. "To reach a port, we must sail - sail, not tie at anchor - sail, not drift."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt.

57. "Seafarers of yore were superstitious lot and paid a great deal of attention not to invoke the ire of the Gods."

- Captain Hank Bracker.

58. "Never in my life before have I experienced such beauty, and fear at the same time."

- llen MacArthur.

59. "The goal is not to sail the boat, but rather to help the boat sail herself."

- John Rousmaniere.

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

- Annie Van De Wiele.

61. "To young men contemplating a voyage, I’d say go"

- Joshua Slocum.

62. "I can't control the wind but I can adjust the sail."

- Ricky Skaggs

63. "A woman knows the face of the man she loves like a sailor knows the open sea."

- Honoré de Balzac.

64. "Every sea to scare the sailor, I have sailed."

- Patrick Stump.

65. "A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt.

66. "Out of sight of land, the sailor feels safe. It is the beach that worries him."

- Charles Davis.

67. "I too sail on myriad voyages in the ocean of my life."

- Avijeet Das.

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

- Aristotle Onassis.

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

- Edmund Gibbon.

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

- George William Curtis.

71. "There is but a plank between a sailor and eternity."

- Thomas Gibbon.

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

- Seneca.

73. "When a man comes to like a sea life, he is not fit to live on land."

- Dr. Samuel Johnson.

74. "Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm."

- Unknown.*

75. "Keep calm and sail away."

- Unknown.*

Quotes About Famous Ships

Throughout history, there have been many famous marine vessels and these are some quotes about them.

76. "There is no danger that Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable and nothing but inconvenience will be suffered by the passengers."

- Phillip Franklin.

77. "I have also observed that the HMS Victory is very weak abaft."

- Sir Robert Seppings.

78. "This is United States ship Constitution, 44 guns, Edward Preble, an American commodore, who will be damned before he sends his boat on board of any vessel."

- Captain Edward Preble.

79.  "Bismarck had been tied down at Hamburg for five weeks ... the precious time at sea lost as a result cannot be made up, and a significant delay in the final war deployment of the ship thus is unavoidable."

- Captain Ernst Lindemann.

80. "The world's biggest and most powerful, both offensively and defensively, superdreadnought ever constructed."

- The NY Times on 'USS Arizona'.

81. "The entirety of a new church, a new commonwealth, a new nation, all of which were to bless the world, were confined within the limits of the Mayflower's hold."

- Rev. E. W. Bishop.

82. "We have a timeline in which the engineers believe they can complete those immediate projects. These are major challenges we can only address over time; it can't all be done at once."

- John Keisler on 'Queen Mary'.

83. "It cannot be denied that the navy of the United States is making rapid strides towards taking a credible position among the navies of the world."

- 'Marine Engineer And Naval Architect' magazine.

84. "Thatch's ship, Queen Anne's Revenge, run a-ground off of the Bar of Topsail-Inlet."

- Captain David Herriot.

85. "The noblest ship of any great ship, at this hour, that I believe be in Cristendom."

- Admiral Edward Howard on the 'Mary Rose'.

Awesome Sea Quotes

 

The sea is where the heart is for the sailor, where the waves are always reminiscent of the sailing days. Here are some quotes on the sea. We hope you like these quotes.

86. "Every ship needs a port because unlike ships waves never get tired!"

- Mehmet Murat Ildan.

87. "I could not help concluding this man had the most supreme pleasure while he was driven so fast and so smoothly by the sea."

- Captain James Cook.

88. "I once knew a writer who, after saying beautiful things about the sea, passed through a Pacific hurricane, and he became a changed man."

- Joshua Slocum.

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

- Joseph Conrad.

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

- Alaine Gerbault.

91. "He who lets the sea lull him into a sense of security is in very grave danger."

- Hammond Innes.

92. "It's out there at sea that you are really yourself."

- Vito Dumas.

93. "It isn't that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better."

- Sir Francis Drake.

94. "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.

95. "There was something to be said for the forward motion of the sea, for a destination on the horizon."

- Micheline Ryckman.

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

- Robin Lee Graham.

97. "The man who has experienced shipwreck shudders even at a calm sea."

- Ovid.

98. "Until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore, you will not know the terror of being forever lost at sea."

- Charles Cook.

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

- Joseph Conrad.

100. "The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach – waiting for a gift from the sea."

- Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for ship quotes then why not take a look at cruise quotes, or ocean quotes?

*Do you know where this quote originated from? Let us know at hello@kidadl.com!

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Written by Srija Chanda

Master of Arts specializing in Mass Communication/Media Studies

Srija Chanda picture

Srija ChandaMaster of Arts specializing in Mass Communication/Media Studies

An aspiring media professional, Srija is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Mass Communication at St. Xavier's University, Kolkata, after completing her degree in journalism. With experience in PR and social media, she has also honed her leadership skills through her participation in a youth parliament. Srija's interests include devouring books, watching movies, and exploring new places through travel.

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