The only way to get a good crew is to marry one.

The chance for mistakes is about equal to the number of crew squared.

— Ted Turner

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

— John Rousmaniere

Sailors, with their built in sense of order, service and discipline, should really be running the world.

— Nicholas Monsarrat

The ocean has always been a salve to my soul.

— Jimmy Buffett

Wind is to us what money is to life on shore.

— Sterling Hayden

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

— Charles Davis

To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go.

— Joshua Slocum

If a man is to be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most.

— E. B. White

There are only two colors to paint a boat, black or white, and only a fool would paint a boat black.

— Nathanael Greene Herreshoff

The sea finds out everything you did wrong.

— Francis Stokes

There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. In or out of 'em, it…

— Kenneth Grahame

Whenever your preparations for the sea are poor; the sea worms its way in and finds the problems.

— Francis Stokes

And the winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

— Edward Gibbon

Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me…

— Herman Melville

I don't know who named them swells. There's nothing swell about them. They should have named them awfuls.

— Hugo Vihlen