Seamen Quotes:

For every Seaman of Industry and Ingenuity, is not only a Navigator, but a Merchant, and also a Soldier.

- William Petty

source: "Several Essays in Political Arithmetick".

topic: Soldier, Seamen, Navigators

There's no way the future's over for Martin Keown, Tony Adams or David Seaman.

- Alan Shearer

topic: Way, England, Seamen

I do not know whether I have been a good seaman, but I know I have been a very faithful one.

- Joseph Conrad

source: Joseph Conrad (2015). “The Complete Novels of Joseph Conrad - All 20 Works in One Premium Edition: Including Unforgettable Titles like Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Nostromo, Under Western Eyes and Many More (With Author’s Letters, Memoirs and Critical Essays)”, p.4350, e-artnow

topic: Faithful, Seamen, Knows

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

- Chester W. Nimitz

source: 1959 In the NewYork Times, 24May.

topic: Peace, War, Sea, Sailboat, Seamen

One ship is very much like another and the sea is always the same. In the immutability of their surroundings the foreign shores, the foreign faces, the changing immensity of life, glide past, veiled not by a sense of mystery but by a slightly disdainful ignorance; for there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence and as inscrutable as Destiny.

- Joseph Conrad

topic: Ignorance, Destiny, Past, Inscrutable, Seamen

Recollect that you must be a seaman to be an officer and also that you cannot be a good officer without being a gentleman.

- Horatio Nelson

source: Horatio Nelson (1846). “The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson”, p.214

topic: Gentleman, Officers, Seamen

Great waves, and blaze with fire like them.In beauty, but do not condemn,The seamen who embark and fail,But only those who will not sail.

- John Piper

topic: Fire, Failing, Wave, Seamen

God bless the soldiers and seamen, with all their brave commanders.

- Abraham Lincoln

source: Abraham Lincoln (2012). “The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)”, p.1402, Jazzybee Verlag

topic: Religious, Brave, Soldier, Seamen

Every Sailor has the potential to lead," said Mullen, "I don't care if it's a seaman recruit or someone higher ranking than myself. Where there's a will, there's a way.

- Michael Mullen

topic: Military, Care, Way, Recruit, Seamen

That Seaman is a handsome young man but he spends too much time looking in his mirror rather than at the ball. You can't keep goal with hair like that.

- Brian Clough

topic: Men, Mirrors, Hair, Seamen

To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go.

- Joshua Slocum

source: Joshua Slocum (1985). “The Voyages of Joshua Slocum”, p.381, Sheridan House, Inc.

topic: Men, Voyages, Boat, Nautical, Sailboat

I've seen your stormy seas and stormy women, And pity lovers rather more than seamen.

- Lord Byron

source: LORD BYRON (1875). “DON JUAN”, p.155

topic: Sad, Sea, Lovers, Stormy Seas, Seamen

Put together a seaman, soldier and airman and what do you get? The sum of all fears.

- Winston Churchill

topic: Soldier, Together, Airmen, Seamen

But where, after all, would be the poetry of the sea were there no wild waves?

- Joshua Slocum

source: Joshua Slocum, Applewood Books (CRT) (2006). “Sailing Alone Around the World”, p.193, Applewood Books

topic: Sea, Would Be, Wave, Stormy Seas, Seamen

The humblest craft that floats makes its appeal to a seaman by the faithfulness of her life.

- Joseph Conrad

source: Joseph Conrad (2015). “The Napoleonic Novels: The Rover & Suspense: From the Renowned Author of The Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes (Including Author’s Memoirs, Letters & Critical Essays)”, p.604, e-artnow

topic: Sailing, Nautical, Crafts, Seamen

It's extremely difficult to get these jobs because you can't get a job on a ship unless you have seaman's paper's, and you can't get seaman's papers unless you have a job on a ship. There had to be a way to break through the circle, and he was the one who arranged it for me.

- Paul Auster

topic: Jobs, Break Through, Circles, Seamen

I was a tried seaman when, for the first time, I set foot upon the soil of my country, and took up my residence where my people had lived for over two hundred years.

- John Sergeant Wise

source: John Sergeant Wise, Paul Dennis Sporer (2005). “End of an Era: The Last Days of Traditional Southern Culture as Seen Through the Eyes of a Young Confederate Soldier”, p.6, Anza Publishing

topic: Country, Time, Years, Seamen, Residence

When I look upon seamen, men of science and philosophers, man is the wisest of all beings; when I look upon priests and prophets nothing is as contemptible as man.

- Diogenes

topic: Men, Looks, Philosopher, Seamen

To be truly challenging, a voyage, like a life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest. Otherwise, you are doomed to a routine traverse, the kind known to yachtsmen who play with their boats at sea 'cruising' it is called. Voyaging belongs to seamen, and to the wanderers of the world who cannot, or will not, fit in. If you are contemplating a voyage and you have the means, abandon the venture until your fortunes change. Only then will you know what the sea is all about.

- Sterling Hayden

source: Sterling Hayden (2015). “Wanderer”, p.42, Pickle Partners Publishing

topic: Mean, Sea, Play, Seamen, Firm Foundation

Columbus's doom-burdened caravels Slant to the shore, and all their seamen land.

- J. C. Squire

topic: Land, Sailing, Columbus, Seamen

He [Columbus] enjoyed long stretches of pure delight such as only a seaman may know, and moments of high, proud exultation that only a discoverer can experience.

- Samuel Eliot Morison

source: Samuel Eliot Morison, Emily Morison Beck (1989). “Sailor historian: the best of Samuel Eliot Morison”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

topic: Long, Experience, May, Seamen

I'm not trying to make excuses for David Seaman, but I think the lights may have been a problem...

- Kevin Keegan

topic: Thinking, Light, Trying, Seamen

The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment. It is commonly observed, that among soldiers and seamen, though there is much kindness, there is little grief; they see their friend fall without any of that lamentation which is indulged in security and idleness, because they have no leisure to spare from the care of themselves; and whoever shall keep his thoughts equally busy will find himself equally unaffected with irretrievable losses.

- Samuel Johnson

source: Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.306

topic: Kindness, Grief, Fall, Lamentation, Spares

A great philosopher in the wrong is like a beacon on the reefs which says to seamen: steer clear of me.

- Jacques Maritain

topic: Philosopher, Beacons, Great Philosophers, Seamen

America was discovered accidentally by a great seaman who was looking for something else; when discovered it was not wanted; and most of the exploration for the next fifty years was done in the hope of getting through or around it. America was named after a man who discovered no part of the New World. History is like that, very chancy.

- Samuel Eliot Morison

source: The Oxford History of the American People ch. 2 (1965)

topic: Men, America, Years, Seamen

Like a red morn that ever yet betokened, Wreck to the seaman, tempest to the field, Sorrow to the shepherds, woe unto the birds, Gusts and foul flaws to herdmen and to herds.

- William Shakespeare

source: William Shakespeare (1843). “The Poems of William Shakspere: With Facts Connected with His Life”, p.42

topic: Woe Unto, Bird, Sorrow, Seamen

Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver, but less daring. Thus with seamen: he who goes the oftenest round Cape Horn goes the most circumspectly.

- Herman Melville

source: Herman Melville (2015). “White Jacket, the World on a Man-of-War: Works of Melville”, p.85, 谷月社

topic: Men, Brave, Capes, Seamen

Demon?” Gwen gasped out. Her back jerked ramrod-straight, and her face leeched of color. “Did you just say demon?” Oh, uh…did I say that?” Strider once again glanced around the plane helplessly. “No, no. I think I said seaman.

- Gena Showalter

source: Gena Showalter (2016). “The Darkest Whisper”, p.52, HQN Books

topic: Thinking, Color, Faces, Strider, Seamen

The seaman tells stories of winds, the ploughman of bulls; the soldier details his wounds, the shepherd his sheep.

- Laurence J. Peter

topic: Sheep, Wind, Soldier, Seamen

It is surely a matter of common observation that a man who knows no one thing intimately has no views worth hearing on things in general. The farmer philosophizes in terms of crops, soils, markets, and implements, the mechanic generalizes his experiences of wood and iron, the seaman reaches similar conclusions by his own special road; and if the scholar keeps pace with these it must be by an equally virile productivity.

- Charles Horton Cooley

topic: Men, Views, Iron, Seamen

The legislature have anxiously provided for those most useful and deserving body of men, the seamen and marines of this country.

- Sherrilyn Kenyon

topic: Country, Marine, Men, Seamen

Still we did not expect to be without rubs and difficulties; and we have had them. First the detention of Western posts: then the coalition of Pilnitz, outlawing our commerce with France, and the British enforcement of the outlawry. In your day French depredations; in mine English, and the Berlin and Milan decrees: now the English orders of council, and the piracies they authorize. When these shall be over, it will the impressment of our seamen, or something else; and so we have gone on, and so we shall go on, puzzled and prospering beyond example in the history of man.

- Thomas Jefferson

source: Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.37, Cambridge University Press

topic: Men, Order, Example, Seamen, Milan

I sometimes think it ironic for an ex-seaman, longshoreman, truck driver, policeman, bus driver, etc... to find success writing children's novels.

- Brian Jacques

topic: Children, Writing, Thinking, Seamen, Truck Driver

Not only the priceless heritage of our fathers, of our seamen, of our Empire builders is being thrown away in a war that serves no British interests - but our alliance leader Stalin dreams of nothing but the destruction of that heritage of our fathers?

- John Amery

source: American Communications Ass'n v. Douds (1950)

topic: Dream, Father, War, Builder, Seamen

I sum up the prospects for 1967 in three short sentences. We are back on course. The ship is picking up speed. The economy is moving. Every seaman knows the command at such a moment: 'steady as she goes'.

- James Callaghan

source: James Callaghan (1987). “Time and chance”, HarperCollins

topic: Moving, Perspective, Ships, Seamen

There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seamen.

- Thomas B. Macaulay

topic: Army, Navy, Gentleman, Seamen, Army Navy

Seamen have a custom, when they meet a whale, to fling him out an empty tub by way of amusement, to divert him from laying violent hands upon the ship.

- Jonathan Swift

source: Jonathan Swift, William Wotton (1811). “A tale of a tub,: written for the universal improvement of mankind. To which is added, An account of a battle between the ancient and modern books in St. James's Library”, p.43

topic: Hands, Whales, Amusement, Fling, Seamen

Seamen three! what men be ye? Gotham's three Wise Men we be. Whither in your bowl so free? To rake the moon from out the sea. The bowl goes trim. The moon doth shine, And our ballast is old wine.

- Thomas Love Peacock

topic: Wise, Wine, Moon, Old Wine, Seamen

For the Members of the Assembly having before their eyes so many fatal Instances of the errors and falshoods, in which the greatest part of mankind has so long wandred, because they rely'd upon the strength of humane Reason alone, have begun anew to correct all Hypotheses by sense, as Seamen do their dead Reckonings by CÅ“lestial Observations; and to this purpose it has been their principal indeavour to enlarge and strengthen the Senses by Medicine, and by such outward Instruments as are proper for their particular works.

- Robert Hooke

topic: Eye, Science, Medicine, Seamen

The colors that float from the masthead should be the credentials of our seamen. There is no safety to us, and the gentlemen have shown it, but in the rule that all who sail under the flag (not being enemies) are protected by the flag.

- Henry Clay

topic: Color, Safety, Gentleman, Seamen, Flag Day

They fought on with a devotion which would puzzle the generation of the 1980s. More surprising, in many instances it would have baffled the men they themselves were before Pearl Harbor. Among MacArthur's ardent infantrymen were cooks, mechanics, pilots whose planes had been shot down, seamen whose ships had been sunk, and some civilian volunteers.

- William Manchester

topic: Men, Volunteer, History, Infantryman, Seamen

When young Galileo, then a student at Pisa, noticed one day during divine service a chandelier swinging backwards and forwards, and convinced himself, by counting his pulse, that the duration of the oscillations was independent of the arc through which it moved, who could know that this discovery would eventually put it in our power, by means of the pendulum, to attain an accuracy in the measurement of time till then deemed impossible, and would enable the storm-tossed seaman in the most distant oceans to determine in what degree of longitude he was sailing?

- Hermann von Helmholtz

source: Hermann von Helmholtz, David Cahan (1995). “Science and Culture: Popular and Philosophical Essays”, p.93, University of Chicago Press

topic: Ocean, Mean, Independent, Pisa, Oscillation

Heads of state are notoriously ill prepared for their mature careers; think of Adolf Hitler (landscape painter), Ho Chi Minh (seaman), and our own Ronald Reagan.

- Barbara Ehrenreich

source: Barbara Ehrenreich (1990). “WORST YEARS OF OUR LIVES”, Pantheon

topic: Pain, Thinking, Careers, Head Of State, Seamen

As an enlisted sailor, I don't feel that the Navy is advancing me in rank fast enough, so I'm going to change my last name to Stains. My guess is they would rather promote me than to have to refer to me as Seaman Stains.

- Brad Wilkerson

topic: Sex, Names, Navy, Seamen, Enlisted

Aubade THE lark now leaves his wat'ry nest, And climbing shakes his dewy wings. He takes this window for the East, And to implore your light he sings- Awake, awake! the morn will never rise Till she can dress her beauty at your eyes. The merchant bows unto the seaman's star, The ploughman from the sun his season takes, But still the lover wonders what they are Who look for day before his mistress wakes. Awake, awake! break thro' your veils of lawn! Then draw your curtains, and begin the dawn!

- William Davenant

topic: Stars, Eye, Light, Seamen

Those officers and men who were immediately under my observation, evinced the greatest gallantry, and I have no doubt that all others conducted themselves as became American officers and seamen.

- Oliver Hazard Perry

source: Oliver Hazard Perry, Citizen of Massachusetts (1834). “A review of a pamphlet purporting to be Documents in relation to the differences which subsisted between the late Commodore Oliver H. Perry, and Captain Jesse D. Elliott”, p.24

topic: Military, Men, Doubt, Seamen, Gallantry

I sat on cushioned otter-skin: My word was law from Ith to Emain, And shook at Invar Amargin The hearts of the world-troubling seamen, And drove tumult and war away....

- William Butler Yeats

topic: War, Heart, Law, Otters, Seamen

What signifies Philosophy that does not apply to some Use? May we not learn from hence, that black Clothes are not so fit to wear in a hot Sunny Climate or Season, as white ones; because in such Cloaths the Body is more heated by the Sun when we walk abroad, and are at the same time heated by the Exercise, which double Heat is apt to bring on putrid dangerous Fevers? The Soldiers and Seamen, who must march and labour in the Sun, should in the East or West Indies have an Uniform of white?

- Benjamin Franklin

source: Benjamin Franklin (1806). “The Complete Works, in Philosophy, Politics, and Morals, of the Late Dr. Benjamin Franklin: Now First Collected and Arranged: with Memoirs of His Early Life, Written by Himself ; in Three Volumes”, p.109

topic: Black Clothes, West Indies, Seamen