Sayings about Sailing
A great ship asks for deep waters.~ Romanian Proverbs
It is good sailing with wind and tide. ~ Dutch Proverbs
To a man wine is like water is to the boat; it can carry him or guzzle him up. ~ Thai Proverb
You are not a fully fledged sailor unless you have sailed under full sail. ~ Irish Proverbs
Two captains sink a ship.~ Turkish Proverbs
If you are in a boat you are more afraid of fire than you are of water. ~ Japanese Proverb
Don’t buy a boat that is under water. ~ Congolese Proverbs
After the ship has sunk, everyone knows how she might have been saved.~ Italian Proverb
Loose lips sink ships.~ American Proverb
Sailors get to know each other better when there is a storm. ~ French Proverb
There is no wind that blows right for the sailor who doesn’t know where the harbor is. ~ Norwegian Proverbs
One foot cannot stand on two boats. ~ Chinese Proverb
Help thy brother’s boat across, and lo! thine own has reached the shore. ~ Hindu Proverb
No matter how big the sea may be, sometimes two ships meet.~ Chinese Proverb
He who plunders with a little boat is a pirate; he who plunders with a fleet is a conqueror. ~ Greek Proverb
The ship that will not obey the helm will have to obey the rocks.~ English Proverbs
A man without money is like a boat without sails. ~ Swedish Proverbs
The boat sails by, the shore remains. ~ Cambodian Proverb
Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. ~ African Proverbs
When the boat reaches mid-stream, it is too late to stop the leak. ~ Chinese Proverb
The water that a ship sails on is the same water that swallows it up.~ Chinese Proverb
A boat that is not tied up will drift along with the stream. ~ Japanese Proverb
It is safest to sail within reach of the shore. ~ Dutch Proverb
In calm water every ship has a good captain.~ Traditional Proverb
Fear blows wind into your sails. ~ Japanese Proverb
Don’t sail out further than you can row back. ~ Danish Proverbs
One should learn to sail in all winds. ~ Italian Proverbs
Better lose the anchor than the whole ship.~ Dutch Proverb
We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. ~ Traditional Proverb
If there is a wave there must be a wind. ~ Chinese Proverb
Whenever the water rises, the boat will rise too. ~ Chinese Proverb
A ship on the beach is a lighthouse to the sea.~ Dutch Proverbs
Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning. ~ Traditional Proverb
Sailors have a port in every storm. ~ Traditional Proverb
Both the fast and the slow will meet each other on the ferry boat. ~ Arabian Proverb
Too many hands will row the boat up a mountain. ~ Japanese Proverbs
Hoist your sail when the wind is fair. ~ Traditional Proverbs
A boat stands firmer with two anchors. ~ Russian Proverbs
Nodding the head does not row the boat. ~ Irish Proverbs
Our passions are the winds that propel our vessel. Our reason is the pilot that steers her. Without winds the vessel would not move and without a pilot she would be lost. ~ Traditional Proverb
Don’t build a new ship out of old wood.~ Chinese Proverb
If you are going to fight, pray once; if you are going to sail, pray twice; if you are getting married, then pray thrice. ~ Polish Proverbs
A ship and a woman are ever repairing.~ Welsh Proverbs
“We have rowed well,” said the flea as the fishing boat arrives at its mooring. ~ Latvian Proverbs
You can’t load a small boat with heavy cargo. ~ Chinese Proverb
It is good to swim near a boat. ~ German Proverbs
Raise your sail one foot and you get ten feet of wind. ~ Chinese Proverb
The boat follows the helm, the woman follows her husband. ~ Vietnamese Proverbs
Quotations about Sailing
God provides the wind, but man must raise the sails. ~ St. Augustine
How happy is the sailor’s life, from coast to coast to roam; in every port he finds a wife, in every land a home. ~ Isaac Bickerstaffe
It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean. ~ John Locke
No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned. ~ Samuel Johnson
The true ship is the ship builder.~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind. ~ Marcus Annaeus Seneca
He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles. ~ Henry David Thoreau
I have the mouth of a sailor. ~ Kristen Bell
We are imprisoned in the realm of life, like a sailor on his tiny boat, on an infinite ocean. ~ Anna Freud
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel. ~ Augustus Hare
To a crazy ship all winds are contrary. ~ George Herbert
They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters: These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.~ Bible
I grew up on the sea and I grew up sailing – I love sailing – and the presence of the sea gives the air and the light a very special quality that I absolutely adore. ~ Connie Nielsen
We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sailing a boat calls for quick action, a blending of feeling with the wind and water as well as with the very heart and soul of the boat itself. Sailing teaches alertness and courage, and gives in return a joyousness and peace that but few sports afford. ~ George Matthew Adams
A woman knows the face of the man she loves as a sailor knows the open sea. ~ Honore de Balzac
Every man should pull a boat over a mountain once in his life. ~ Werner Herzog
No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port. ~ Michel de Montaigne
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
The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
If the wind is against you then start sailing against it because the wind may never change in your favor. ~ Kazi Shams
I love the water element, specifically the sea. I grew up on the sea and I grew up sailing – I love sailing – and the presence of the sea gives the air and the light a very special quality that I absolutely adore. ~ Connie Nielsen
The master of a single trade can support a family. The master of seven trades cannot support himself. The wind is never for the sailor who knows not to what port he is bound. ~ Og Mandino
I keep sailing on in this middle passage. I am sailing into the wind and the dark. But I am doing my best to keep my boat steady and my sails full. ~ Arthur Ashe
A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.~ Henrik Ibsen
Give wind and tide a chance to change. ~ Richard E. Byrd
I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. ~ Jimmy Dean
The most ordinary conditions for observing sailing birds are then the wind and sea are both aft. ~ Lawrence Hargrave
What do you want to be a sailor for? There are greater storms in politics than you will ever find at sea. Piracy, broadsides, blood on the decks. You will find them all in politics. ~ David Lloyd George
My escape is to just get in a boat and disappear on the water. ~ Carl Hiaasen
Vexed sailors cursed the rain, for which poor shepherds prayed in vain. ~ Edmund Waller
History is the ship carrying living memories to the future.~ Stephen Spender
I don’t have to take a trip around the world or be on a yacht in the Mediterranean to have happiness. I can find it in the little things, like looking out into my backyard and seeing deer in the fields. ~ Queen Latifah
Sailing round the world in a dirty gondola oh, to be back in the land of Coca-Cola! ~ Bob Dylan
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. ~ William Arthur Ward
Wind to a sailor is what money is to life on shore. ~ Sterling Hayden
As soon as you set foot on a yacht you belong to some man, not to yourself, and you die of boredom. ~ Coco Chanel
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. ~ Marjorie Holmes
Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail. ~ David Hare
We did not all come over on the same ship, but we are all in the same boat. ~ Bernard Baruch
The Ancient Mariner would not have taken so well if it had been called The Old Sailor. ~ Samuel Butler
If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable. ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca
It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go. ~ Jim Rohn
Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it. ~ David Lee Roth
I don’t get cast as the guy who steps off a yacht in a white linen suit with a martini. ~ Martin Freeman
It is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage. ~ George William Curtis