These sailing quotes help capture the essence of being out at sea in a wind-powered vessel enjoying the sun in your face and the water beneath you.
For all who have sailed even the simplest of boats, they know that there’s something magical about the experience. Sailing is a time-honored tradition with its own vocabulary and rewards that you cannot find elsewhere.
Best sailing quotes
Here are our favorite sailing quotations for you to “set sail” with (sorry, couldn’t resist).
1.) No landlubbers allowed
“Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit.”
Brooks Atkinson
A landlubber is a person unfamiliar with the ways of sailing – a non-sailor. Sailors enjoy the opportunity to visit various destinations and experience unique routes that others don’t. Adventures await both on the boat and at every port.
2.) Work Hard, Play Hard
“Work like a captain and play like a pirate.”
Unknown
At sea, like on land, there’s a time to get the work done and a time to relax. Try to perfect both parts. (Don’t take the pirate part too literally, please).
3.) Good luck happens for those who are prepared.
“The wind and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigator.”
Edmund Gibbon
Fortune favors the skilled in sailing as well as in other endeavors. What might seem lucky to some might actually be years of experience and expertise that enables one captain to out-maneuver another. In sailing, small movements can produce better results.
4.) Expertise is needed when there are rough seas
“Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.”
Publilius Syrus
Just as anyone looks like a great investor when the whole market is up, anyone can captain the boat when the conditions are great. When the sea is more challenging, it’s important to have more sailing skills.
5.) Preparation for sailing is of utmost importance
“The sea finds out everything you did wrong.”
Francis Stokes
Sailors should never underestimate the challenge of sailing on big bodies of water. Planning and preparation are key. Create lists, check twice, review with others, and be cautious to ensure a safe trip.
6.) Sailing Takes Me Away
“Who is staring at the sea is already sailing a little.”
Paul Carvel
Sailing is about exploration and connecting with the elements. There’s something about the solitude, the breeze, and the relaxation that can make sailing a one-of-a-kind experience.
7.) A sailing life can be simple
“At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much.”
Robin Lee Graham
There’s a simplicity to sailing that many treasures. You might want to read about the history and tradition of sailing. There’s also an immediate reward when you get your sail trim just right.
Funny sailing quotes
Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk.
Sir Francis Chichester
The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.
Vincent Van Gogh
A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind. Live passionately, even if it kills you because something is going to kill you anyway.
Webb Chiles
Home is where the anchor drops.
Unknown
To young men contemplating a voyage, I would say, “Go!”
Joshua Slocum
The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Only two sailors, in my experience, never ran aground. One never left port, and the other was an atrocious liar.
Don Bamford
Good sailing sayings
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
William Arthur Ward
Sail through the good days, and on bad days pick a spot of blue sky to steer toward.
Richelle E. Goodrich
In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence.
Kahlil Gibran
For the most part, a sailboat navigates through its world of wind and water not leaving a single trace of its passage. Nothing is consumed. Nothing is altered. The winds and the water are left in exactly the same condition for the next user. Sailing is forever.
Unknown
No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
Hellen Keller
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
It’s not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that’s what a ship needs but what a ship is…what the Black Pearl really is…is freedom.
Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean
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.
L. Francis Herreshoff
Smooth sailing
He is the best sailor who can steer within the fewest points of the wind and extract a motive power out of the greatest obstacles.
Walter Scott
It is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage.
George William Curtis
On a day when the wind is perfect, the sail just needs to open, and the world is full of beauty.
Rumi
Aboard a boat, it is frequently possible to achieve just that. That is why sailing is a way of life, one of the finest of lives.
Carleton Mitchell
On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale.
Alexander Pope
The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang and has no respect.
Carl Sandburg
The fine art of slowly going nowhere at great expense while being cold, wet and miserable.
Irv Heller
There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than life at sea.
Joseph Conrad
Ship sailing away
Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain
A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind.
Webb Chiles
It’s remarkable how quickly a good and favorable wind can sweep away the maddening frustrations of shore living.
Ernest K. Gann
The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.
Jacques Yves Cousteau
Men in a ship are always looking up, and men ashore are usually looking down.
John Masefield
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. At that time you can be equal to Ulysses and brother to him.
Errol Flynn
You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
Christopher Columbus
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
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
Short sailing quotes
I cannot not sail.
E.B. White
The goal is not to sail the boat but rather to help the boat sail herself.
John Rousmaniere
If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
The art of the sailor is to leave nothing to chance.
Annie Van De Wiele
I wanted freedom, open air and adventure. I found it on the sea.
Alain Gerbault
The ocean is an object of no small terror.
Edmund Burke
A bad day sailing is 100 times better than a good day at work.
Unknown
Hoist up sail while gale doth last, Tide and wind stay no man’s pleasure.
Robert Southwell
Inspirational
The cure for anything is saltwater – sweat, tears, or the sea.
Isak Dinesen
Now and then, we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.
Mark Twain
There is no better tool or equipment you can have onboard than a well-trained crew.
Larry Pardey
Ships are the nearest things to dreams that hands have ever made, for somewhere deep in their oaken hearts, the soul of a song is laid.
Robert N. Rose
A ship in the harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for.
William Shedd
I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship.
Willa Cather
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
It is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears.
John F. Kennedy
Motivational Quotes
The lovely thing about cruising is that planning usually turns out to be of little use.
Dom Degnon
Any fool can carry on, but a wise man knows how to shorten sail in time.
Joseph Conrad
We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.
Dolly Parton
We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.
Aristotle Onassis
Sailors, with their built-in sense of order, service, and discipline, should really be running the world.
Nicholas Monsarrat
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.
L. Francis Herreshoff
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
Famous Sailing Quotes
The days pass happily with me wherever my ship sails.
Joshua Slocum
It is not that life ashore is distasteful to me. But life at sea is better.
Sir Francis Drake
Live in the, sunshine swim the sea, drink the wild air.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel.
August Hare
The only ship you can truly steer in this ocean is the one you’re sailing. Quit trying to alter the winds; harness them. Richelle E. Goodrich
Sailing proverbs
One foot cannot stand on two boats.
Chinese Proverb
Hoist your sail when the wind is fair.
English Proverb
If there is a wave, there must be wind.
Chinese Proverb
God provides the wind, but man must raise the sails.
St. Augustine
A boat stands firmer with two anchors.
Russian Proverb
Raise your sail one foot, and you get ten feet of wind.
Chinese Proverb
Fear blows wind into your sails.
Japanese Proverb
Two captains sink a ship.
Turkish Proverb
After the ship has sunk, everyone knows how she might have been saved.
Italian Proverb
In calm water, every ship has a good captain.
English Proverb
Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.
African proverb
Sailor lingo that we use today
Here is some of the sailing lingo that has found its way into everyday conversation on and off the boat.
- Give a wide berth.
- Batten down the hatches.
- Make waves.
- Run a tight ship.
- Red sky at night, sailor’s delight, red sky in morn, sailors take warn.
- Down in the doldrums.
- High and dry.
- Rock the boat.
- Pipe down.
- Hand over fist.
- Through thick and thin.
- Learn the ropes.
- The cut of one’s jib.
- A shot across the bows.
- Sink or swim.
- Bamboozle.
- The devil to pay.
- Over a barrel.
- All hands on deck.
- Passed with flying colors.
- Dead in the water.
- Scuttlebutt.
- A clean bill of health.
- On Board.
- A loose cannon.
Spending time sailing can be relaxing and take away some of your stress from your day-to-day challenges. It helps you get away from it all and maybe even go places you’ve never been. If you’ve never sailed before, make sure you give it a try. I hope you enjoyed our list.
By Mike O’Halloran
Mike is the founder and editor of Sports Feel Good Stories. He can sometimes be found sailing on Lake Harriet or Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis.
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