{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea", "heading": "Quotes about the sea", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea.md", "quotes_count": 50, "authors_count": 34, "parent": { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature", "heading": "Quotes about nature" }, "children": [], "quotes": [ { "id": "56a26edf-4cd2-48c1-ab56-0ab2338f5b44", "slug": "but-during-those", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/r-d-blackmore/lorna-doone/but-during-those", "text": "But during those two months of fog (for we had it all the winter), the saddest and the heaviest thing was to stand beside the sea. To be upon the beach yourself, and see the long waves coming in; to know that they are long waves, but only see a piece of them; and to hear them lifting roundly, swelling over smooth green rocks, plashing down in the hollow corners, but bearing on all the same as ever, soft and sleek and sorrowful, till their little noise is over.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "R. D. Blackmore", "slug": "r-d-blackmore", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/r-d-blackmore" }, "book": { "title": "Lorna Doone", "slug": "lorna-doone", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/r-d-blackmore/lorna-doone" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "sadness", "slug": "sadness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sadness" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/R._D._Blackmore#Lorna_Doone_(1869)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:06:00" }, { "id": "cb2d5d4f-6b6a-4834-ab13-bb028df40bce", "slug": "but-under-it-there", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/nemesis-games/but-under-it-there", "text": "But under it there was a faint, not-unpleasant odor of rotting seaweed and salt. The ocean, just outside, seeped into everything. An olfactory reminder to everyone passing through the Ellis Island of the space age that Earth was absolutely unique to the human race. The birthplace of everything. The salt water flowing in everyone’s veins first pulled from the same oceans right outside the building. The seas had been around longer than humans, had helped create them, and then when they were all dead, it’d take their water back without a thought.\n\nThat, at least, wasn’t a lie.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James S. A. Corey", "slug": "james-s-a-corey", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey" }, "book": { "title": "Nemesis Games", "slug": "nemesis-games", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-s-a-corey/nemesis-games" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 76, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_S._A._Corey#Nemesis_Games_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:36" }, { "id": "6f8cda1b-d25a-459b-bca9-3e3691f37465", "slug": "sometimes-the-waves", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/keri-hulme/the-bone-people/sometimes-the-waves", "text": "Sometimes, the waves grow hushed, but the sea is always there, touching, caressing, eating the earth.... (chapter 6, p249)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Keri Hulme", "slug": "keri-hulme", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/keri-hulme" }, "book": { "title": "The Bone People", "slug": "the-bone-people", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/keri-hulme/the-bone-people" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Keri_Hulme#The_Bone_People_(1984_novel)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:05:13" }, { "id": "3e1c6e9c-eec6-43a4-aaba-001589b5121c", "slug": "the-ocean-forever", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn/a-mirror-for-observers/the-ocean-forever", "text": "The ocean, forever changing and the same, was awake with deep music tonight; I was alone and not alone at all. Not alone, looking down some hours from the moving bow, seeing the flash and lingering subsidence of the noctilucae, those living diamonds of the sea, their light as transient as the sea foam and eternal as life, if life is eternal. Everything goes with me, the cherished faces, the words that endure although no embodied voice is near my body but only the great continuing voice of the sea and of a westerly wind out of the open regions of the world. I am not alone.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Edgar Pangborn", "slug": "edgar-pangborn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn" }, "book": { "title": "A Mirror for Observers", "slug": "a-mirror-for-observers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/edgar-pangborn/a-mirror-for-observers" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 215, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edgar_Pangborn#A_Mirror_for_Observers_(1954)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:40" }, { "id": "ae7c8b51-4cf2-4050-9200-8681274fcf89", "slug": "people-often-forget", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tiphanie-yanique/land-of-love-and-drowning/people-often-forget", "text": "People often forget that they too are subject to the whims of the sea, that their flesh and bone can be pulled down and swallowed up just like anything else. But the sea remembers. It remembers everything, from the smallest broken shell to the largest sunken ship.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tiphanie Yanique", "slug": "tiphanie-yanique", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tiphanie-yanique" }, "book": { "title": "Land of Love and Drowning", "slug": "land-of-love-and-drowning", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tiphanie-yanique/land-of-love-and-drowning" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 283, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tiphanie_Yanique#Land_of_Love_and_Drowning_(2014)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:39" }, { "id": "593d9b18-97b0-4446-a8d7-2c30a3f55153", "slug": "he-will-remember", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall/he-will-remember", "text": "He will remember his first sight of the open sea: a gray wrinkled vastness, like the residue of a dream.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Hilary Mantel", "slug": "hilary-mantel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel" }, "book": { "title": "Wolf Hall", "slug": "wolf-hall", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/hilary-mantel/wolf-hall" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 15, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hilary_Mantel#Wolf_Hall_(2009)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:19" }, { "id": "d0d8eb75-6374-4abf-a5ae-b5105727bff9", "slug": "ocean-people-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston/china-men/ocean-people-are", "text": "Ocean people are different from land people. The ocean never stops saying and asking into ears, which don't sleep like eyes. Those who live by the sea examine the driftwood and glass balls that float from foreign ships. They let scores of invisible imps loose out of found bottles. In a scoop of salt water, they revive the dead blobs that have been beached in storms and tides: fins, whiskers, and gills unfold; mouths, eyes, and colors bloom and spread. Sometimes ocean people are given to understand the newness and oldness of the world; then all morning they try to keep that boundless joy like a little sun inside their chests. The ocean also makes its people know immensity. (p90)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Maxine Hong Kingston", "slug": "maxine-hong-kingston", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston" }, "book": { "title": "China Men", "slug": "china-men", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/maxine-hong-kingston/china-men" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Maxine_Hong_Kingston#China_Men_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:47" }, { "id": "2c09e028-af3f-4722-856c-272bf9446088", "slug": "the-sky-at-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird/the-sky-at-the", "text": "The sky at the top of the gray ocean has become much lighter now. The sun is about to rise. I will end this recording for now and stop the bus and walk outside and watch the sun rise over the ocean.\n\nMy God, the world can be beautiful.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Walter Tevis", "slug": "walter-tevis", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis" }, "book": { "title": "Mockingbird", "slug": "mockingbird", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/walter-tevis/mockingbird" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 255, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "beauty", "slug": "beauty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/beauty" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_Tevis#Mockingbird_(1980)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:26" }, { "id": "941ebf1c-f8b0-4330-af0f-61323a06398c", "slug": "o-nly-the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner/the-story-of-an-african-farm/o-nly-the-sea", "text": "“[O]nly the sea is like a human being . . .always moving, always something deep in itself is stirring it. It never rests; it is always wanting, wanting, wanting. It hurries on; and then it creeps back slowly without having reached, moaning. It is always asking a question and it never gets the answer.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Olive Schreiner", "slug": "olive-schreiner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner" }, "book": { "title": "The Story of an African Farm", "slug": "the-story-of-an-african-farm", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/olive-schreiner/the-story-of-an-african-farm" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "human nature", "slug": "human-nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/human-nature" }, { "name": "desire", "slug": "desire", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/desire" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Olive_Schreiner#The_Story_of_an_African_Farm_(1883)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:50" }, { "id": "308017fd-fe87-4eb8-a2e7-b44b05495277", "slug": "as-one-moves", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/justin-cronin/the-ferryman/as-one-moves", "text": "As one moves out to sea, the world's dimensions change. While things on land grow distant, the sea increases in its expanse, made bluer and wilder; there is a taste of something grand in it. It makes one seem small but also connected to larger forces, part of a great planetary flow. I felt deeply inside the present moment, as if I'd entered a more authentic state of being.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Justin Cronin", "slug": "justin-cronin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/justin-cronin" }, "book": { "title": "The Ferryman", "slug": "the-ferryman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/justin-cronin/the-ferryman" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the present", "slug": "the-present", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-present" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Justin_Cronin#The_Ferryman_(2023)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:05" }, { "id": "69bda195-51c8-402d-b690-b0705c0da485", "slug": "there-are-three", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tad-williams/stone-of-farewell/there-are-three", "text": "There are three kinds of people—the living, the dead, and those at sea.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tad Williams", "slug": "tad-williams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tad-williams" }, "book": { "title": "Stone of Farewell", "slug": "stone-of-farewell", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tad-williams/stone-of-farewell" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 475, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tad_Williams#Stone_of_Farewell_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:29" }, { "id": "39debb5d-3bf5-4d61-9ead-8f15416f06d0", "slug": "there-is-nothing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tad-williams/the-dragonbone-chair/there-is-nothing", "text": "“There is nothing like the ocean to remind you of what is important,” she said quietly, and smiled. Cadrach’s returned smile was weak.\n\n“Ah, by the Good Lord, that’s true,” he groaned. “I am reminded that life is sweet, that the sea is treacherous, and that I am a fool.”\n\nMiriamele nodded solemnly, staring up at the bellying sails. “Those are good things to remember,” she said.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tad Williams", "slug": "tad-williams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tad-williams" }, "book": { "title": "The Dragonbone Chair", "slug": "the-dragonbone-chair", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tad-williams/the-dragonbone-chair" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 713, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tad_Williams#The_Dragonbone_Chair_(1988)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:59:28" }, { "id": "c5eb1416-4f5b-42a0-aafc-ef6203204b57", "slug": "she-loved-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords/she-loved-the", "text": "She loved the sea. She liked the sharp salty smell of the air, and the vastness of the horizons bounded only by a vault of azure sky above. It made her feel small, but free as well.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "George RR Martin", "slug": "george-rr-martin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin" }, "book": { "title": "A Storm of Swords", "slug": "a-storm-of-swords", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-rr-martin/a-storm-of-swords" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire#A_Storm_of_Swords_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:50" }, { "id": "cde3ca77-2206-4bac-8486-6252d40f94db", "slug": "water-water-every", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-taylor-coleridge/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner/water-water-every", "text": "Water, water, every where,\n\nAnd all the boards did shrink;\n\nWater, water, every where,\n\nNor any drop to drink.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel Taylor Coleridge", "slug": "samuel-taylor-coleridge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-taylor-coleridge" }, "book": { "title": "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner", "slug": "the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-taylor-coleridge/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner#Part_II", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:33" }, { "id": "05e8a459-65a9-45d5-89c9-e59ec9058074", "slug": "day-after-day", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-taylor-coleridge/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner/day-after-day", "text": "Day after day, day after day,\n\nWe stuck, nor breath nor motion;\n\nAs idle as a painted ship\n\nUpon a painted ocean.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Samuel Taylor Coleridge", "slug": "samuel-taylor-coleridge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-taylor-coleridge" }, "book": { "title": "The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner", "slug": "the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-taylor-coleridge/the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Rime_of_the_Ancient_Mariner#Part_II", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:33" }, { "id": "9378cda6-5817-4978-ac7d-519c06957898", "slug": "the-seas-and", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-powers/on-stranger-tides/the-seas-and", "text": "The seas and the weathers are what is; your vessels adapt to them or sink.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tim Powers", "slug": "tim-powers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-powers" }, "book": { "title": "On Stranger Tides", "slug": "on-stranger-tides", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tim-powers/on-stranger-tides" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 9, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "survival", "slug": "survival", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/survival" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tim_Powers#On_Stranger_Tides_(1987)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:37" }, { "id": "e114d307-f789-4284-84d2-daa7854ea882", "slug": "the-voice-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kate-chopin/the-awakening/the-voice-of-the", "text": "The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kate Chopin", "slug": "kate-chopin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kate-chopin" }, "book": { "title": "The Awakening", "slug": "the-awakening", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kate-chopin/the-awakening" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "loneliness", "slug": "loneliness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/loneliness" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kate_Chopin#The_Awakening_(1899)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:47" }, { "id": "4264253e-d3e0-4928-884f-bf1974a0c222", "slug": "oh-rolling-round", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-lindsay/the-magic-pudding/oh-rolling-round", "text": "Oh, rolling round the ocean,\n\nFrom a far and foreign land,\n\nMay suit the common notion\n\nThat a sailor's life is grand.But as for me, I'd sooner be\n\nA roaring here at home\n\nAbout the rolling, roaring life\n\nOf them that sails the foam.For the homeward-bounder's chorus,\n\nWhich he roars across the foam,\n\nIs all about chucking a sailor's life,\n\nAnd settling down at home.Home, home, home,\n\nThat's the song of them that roam,\n\nThe song of the roaring, rolling sea\n\nIs all about rolling home.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Norman Lindsay", "slug": "norman-lindsay", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-lindsay" }, "book": { "title": "The Magic Pudding", "slug": "the-magic-pudding", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/norman-lindsay/the-magic-pudding" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "home", "slug": "home", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/home" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Norman_Lindsay#The_Magic_Pudding_(1918)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:08" }, { "id": "3b585574-67ff-4b15-8f85-8d4b86d0605b", "slug": "i-have-always", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable/i-have-always", "text": "I have always disliked the sea, its surliness, its menace, its vast reaches and unknowable, shudder-inducing depths.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Banville", "slug": "john-banville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville" }, "book": { "title": "The Untouchable", "slug": "the-untouchable", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Banville#The_Untouchable_(1997)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:11" }, { "id": "a48a1383-a6cd-4acb-9886-59205dfc5c3f", "slug": "i-am-longing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bram-stoker/dracula/i-am-longing", "text": "I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Bram Stoker", "slug": "bram-stoker", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bram-stoker" }, "book": { "title": "Dracula", "slug": "dracula", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/bram-stoker/dracula" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "dreams and aspirations", "slug": "dreams-and-aspirations", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dracula_(novel)#Chapter_V", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:03" }, { "id": "f0550df2-e8a0-48de-87f7-e87c0f24124c", "slug": "they-had-jerrybuilt", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ross-macdonald/the-drowning-pool/they-had-jerrybuilt", "text": "They had jerrybuilt the beaches from San Diego to the Golden Gate, bulldozed super-highways through mountains, cut down a thousand year of redwood growth, and built an urban wilderness in the desert. They couldn't touch the ocean. They poured their sewage into it, but it couldn't be tainted.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ross Macdonald", "slug": "ross-macdonald", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ross-macdonald" }, "book": { "title": "The Drowning Pool", "slug": "the-drowning-pool", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ross-macdonald/the-drowning-pool" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "ecology", "slug": "ecology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ross_Macdonald#The_Drowning_Pool_(1952)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:52" }, { "id": "60221f17-c313-4282-a30f-93e3c246950c", "slug": "there-were-many", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/yann-martel/life-of-pi/there-were-many", "text": "There were many seas. The sea roared like a tiger. The sea whispered in your ear like a friend telling you secrets. The sea clinked like small change in a pocket. The sea thundered like avalanches. The sea hissed like sandpaper working on wood. The sea sounded like someone vomiting. The sea was dead silent.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Yann Martel", "slug": "yann-martel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/yann-martel" }, "book": { "title": "Life Of Pi", "slug": "life-of-pi", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/yann-martel/life-of-pi" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 239, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yann_Martel#Life_of_Pi_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:03" }, { "id": "85b831c5-8317-4a09-aba5-d578770b7d55", "slug": "she-knew-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/she-knew-the", "text": "She knew the sea too well ever to trust it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "American Empire: Blood and Iron", "slug": "american-empire-blood-and-iron", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 142, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "trust", "slug": "trust", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/trust" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#American_Empire:_The_Center_Cannot_Hold_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:50" }, { "id": "e71f8f83-0a4b-45a2-99a4-37f32b3eec5e", "slug": "a-fisherman-who", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-breakthroughs/a-fisherman-who", "text": "A fisherman who wasn’t a born pessimist hadn’t been going to sea long enough.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "The Great War: Breakthroughs", "slug": "the-great-war-breakthroughs", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/the-great-war-breakthroughs" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 131, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "pessimism", "slug": "pessimism", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/pessimism" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#The_Great_War:_Breakthroughs_(2000)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:49" }, { "id": "349c4a9f-f953-4087-8cd3-8fdce136e818", "slug": "there-is-nothing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/lord-jim/there-is-nothing", "text": "There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Conrad", "slug": "joseph-conrad", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad" }, "book": { "title": "Lord Jim", "slug": "lord-jim", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/lord-jim" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lord_Jim#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:16" }, { "id": "391b640b-1e83-42c4-96b8-72ba463b9505", "slug": "one-ship-is-very", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/heart-of-darkness/one-ship-is-very", "text": "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.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Joseph Conrad", "slug": "joseph-conrad", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad" }, "book": { "title": "Heart of Darkness", "slug": "heart-of-darkness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/joseph-conrad/heart-of-darkness" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "fate", "slug": "fate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fate" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Heart_of_Darkness#Part_I", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:12" }, { "id": "94d8013e-3b5b-42ed-adf1-f11cdd63ad15", "slug": "the-sea-is-emotion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-paolini/eragon/the-sea-is-emotion", "text": "The sea is emotion incarnate. It loves, hates, and weeps. It defies all attempts to capture it with words and rejects all shackles. No matter what you say about it, there is always that which you can't.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Christopher Paolini", "slug": "christopher-paolini", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-paolini" }, "book": { "title": "Eragon", "slug": "eragon", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-paolini/eragon" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "emotions", "slug": "emotions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/emotions" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eragon#Brom", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:50:29" }, { "id": "290c4d74-0f71-4473-8de2-82ebaba71456", "slug": "rollers-on-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-morrow-lindbergh/gift-from-the-sea/rollers-on-the", "text": "Rollers on the beach, wind in the pines, the slow flapping of herons across sand dunes, drown out the hectic rhythms of city and suburb, time tables and schedules. One falls under their spell, relaxes, stretches out prone. One becomes, in fact, like the element on which one lies, flattened by the sea; bare, open, empty as the beach, erased by today’s tides of all yesterday’s scribblings.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anne Morrow Lindbergh", "slug": "anne-morrow-lindbergh", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-morrow-lindbergh" }, "book": { "title": "Gift from the Sea", "slug": "gift-from-the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-morrow-lindbergh/gift-from-the-sea" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" }, { "name": "rest", "slug": "rest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rest" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Morrow_Lindbergh#Gift_from_the_Sea_(1955)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:28" }, { "id": "06486745-b681-4722-9fd8-15c28ab3d406", "slug": "the-sea-does", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-morrow-lindbergh/gift-from-the-sea/the-sea-does", "text": "The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach — waiting for a gift from the sea.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anne Morrow Lindbergh", "slug": "anne-morrow-lindbergh", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-morrow-lindbergh" }, "book": { "title": "Gift from the Sea", "slug": "gift-from-the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anne-morrow-lindbergh/gift-from-the-sea" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "patience", "slug": "patience", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/patience" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anne_Morrow_Lindbergh#Gift_from_the_Sea_(1955)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:28" }, { "id": "78b807dd-c754-419e-9320-480c37f6993a", "slug": "day-by-day", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us/day-by-day", "text": "Day by day and season by season, the ocean dominates the world's climate.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rachel L Carson", "slug": "rachel-l-carson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson" }, "book": { "title": "The Sea Around Us", "slug": "the-sea-around-us", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" }, { "name": "climate", "slug": "climate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/climate" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson#The_Sea_Around_Us_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:22" }, { "id": "496ebe9f-894a-4316-9db8-f086749df65d", "slug": "f-or-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us/f-or-the", "text": "F or the globe as a whole, the ocean is the great regulator, the great stabilizer of temperatures. It has been described as 'a savings bank for solar energy, receiving deposits in seasons of excessive insolation and paying them back in seasons of want. Without the ocean, our world would be visited by unthinkably harsh extremes of temperature.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rachel L Carson", "slug": "rachel-l-carson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson" }, "book": { "title": "The Sea Around Us", "slug": "the-sea-around-us", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" }, { "name": "climate", "slug": "climate", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/climate" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson#The_Sea_Around_Us_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:22" }, { "id": "9bf49a6f-be11-42be-a425-d457ec421ec8", "slug": "although-mans-record", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us/although-mans-record", "text": "Although man's record as a steward of the natural resources of the earth has been a discouraging one, there has long been a certain comfort in the belief that the sea, at least, was inviolate, beyond man's ability to change and to despoil. But this belief, unfortunately, has proved to be naive. In unlocking the secrets of the atom, modern man has found himself confronted with a frightening problem-what to do with the most dangerous materials that have ever existed in all the earth's history, the by-products of atomic fission. The stark problem that faces him is whether he can dispose of these lethal substances without rendering the earth uninhabitable. No account of the sea today is complete unless it takes note of this ominous problem. By its very vastness and its seeming remoteness, the sea has invited the attention of those who have the problem of disposal, and with very little discussion and almost no public notice, at least until the late 'fifties, the sea has been selected as a \"natural\" burying place for the contaminated rubbish and other \"low-level wastes\" of the Atomic Age.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rachel L Carson", "slug": "rachel-l-carson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson" }, "book": { "title": "The Sea Around Us", "slug": "the-sea-around-us", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "ecology", "slug": "ecology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson#The_Sea_Around_Us_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:21" }, { "id": "71611ba0-6be0-4bc8-bd92-487d054f7b8f", "slug": "it-is-a-curious", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us/it-is-a-curious", "text": "It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose, should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rachel L Carson", "slug": "rachel-l-carson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson" }, "book": { "title": "The Sea Around Us", "slug": "the-sea-around-us", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "ecology", "slug": "ecology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson#The_Sea_Around_Us_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:21" }, { "id": "3c831b78-7be7-4d37-9fa7-e0227eefefef", "slug": "fishes-and-plankton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us/fishes-and-plankton", "text": "Fishes and plankton, whales and squids, birds and sea turtles, all are linked by unbreakable ties to certain kinds of water—to warm water or cold water, to clear or turbid water, to water rich in phosphates or in silicates.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Rachel L Carson", "slug": "rachel-l-carson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson" }, "book": { "title": "The Sea Around Us", "slug": "the-sea-around-us", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/rachel-l-carson/the-sea-around-us" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 27, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson#The_Sea_Around_Us_(1951)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:21" }, { "id": "2da0a2d1-6f1d-4b2c-a5dd-7e16c60cb6c0", "slug": "time-is-more", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/tortilla-flat/time-is-more", "text": "Time is more complex near the sea than in any other place, for in addition to the circling of the sun and the turning of the seasons, the waves beat out the passage of time on the rocks and the tides rise and fall as a great clepsydra.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Steinbeck", "slug": "john-steinbeck", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck" }, "book": { "title": "Tortilla Flat", "slug": "tortilla-flat", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-steinbeck/tortilla-flat" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "time", "slug": "time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/time" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck#Tortilla_Flat_(1935)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:57" }, { "id": "ad5e2f88-0625-4b40-8691-3da02536850e", "slug": "consider-the-subtleness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/consider-the-subtleness", "text": "Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began. Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herman Melville", "slug": "herman-melville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville" }, "book": { "title": "Moby-Dick", "slug": "moby-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 308, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "peace of mind", "slug": "peace-of-mind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/peace-of-mind" }, { "name": "soul", "slug": "soul", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/soul" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#Brit_(58)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:41" }, { "id": "647c04b0-754e-49b4-8e52-1c08997a5fe9", "slug": "however-baby-man", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/however-baby-man", "text": "However baby man may brag of his science and skill, and however much, in a flattering future, that science and skill may augment; yet for ever and for ever, to the crack of doom, the sea will insult and murder him, and pulverize the stateliest, stiffest frigate lie can make; nevertheless, by the continual repetition of these very impressions, man has lost that sense of the full awfulness of the sea which aboriginally belongs to it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herman Melville", "slug": "herman-melville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville" }, "book": { "title": "Moby-Dick", "slug": "moby-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 306, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "science", "slug": "science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science" }, { "name": "humility", "slug": "humility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#Brit_(58)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:41" }, { "id": "0063fcd3-58ec-474e-bb4c-b3e7250efefe", "slug": "yea-foolish-mortals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/yea-foolish-mortals", "text": "Yea, foolish mortals, Noah's flood is not yet subsided; two thirds of the fair world it yet covers.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herman Melville", "slug": "herman-melville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville" }, "book": { "title": "Moby-Dick", "slug": "moby-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 307, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#Brit_(58)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:41" }, { "id": "8c657f04-3319-4fd0-a445-130403fd1845", "slug": "why-did-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/why-did-the", "text": "Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning. And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herman Melville", "slug": "herman-melville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville" }, "book": { "title": "Moby-Dick", "slug": "moby-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 3, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "life", "slug": "life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/life" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" }, { "name": "mythology", "slug": "mythology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/mythology" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#Loomings_(1)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:39" }, { "id": "3ebb91f8-c521-4fdb-97d0-3efbcdd891d3", "slug": "call-me-ishmael", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick/call-me-ishmael", "text": "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago — never mind how long precisely —having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Herman Melville", "slug": "herman-melville", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville" }, "book": { "title": "Moby-Dick", "slug": "moby-dick", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/herman-melville/moby-dick" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 1, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "travel", "slug": "travel", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/travel" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" }, { "name": "melancholy", "slug": "melancholy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/melancholy" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Moby-Dick#Loomings_(1)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:39" }, { "id": "48c70451-f196-4836-b0bb-ccd888992cb1", "slug": "the-house-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernest-hemingway/islands-in-the-stream/the-house-was", "text": "The house was built on the highest part of the narrow tongue of land between the harbor and the open sea. It had lasted through three hurricanes and it was built solid as a ship. It was shaded by tall coconut palms that were bent by the trade wind and on the ocean side you could walk out of the door and down the bluff across the white sand and into the Gulf Stream. The water of the Stream was usually a dark blue when you looked out at it when there was no wind. But when you walked out into it there was just the green light of the water over that floury white sand and you could see the shadow of any big fish a long time before he could ever come in close to the beach.\n\nIt was a safe and fine place to bathe in the day but it was no place to swim at night. At night the sharks came in close to the beach, hunting at the edge of the Stream, and from the upper porch of the house on quiet nights you could hear the splashing of the fish they hunted and if you went down to the beach you could see the phosphorescent wakes they made in the water. At night the sharks had no fear and everything else feared them. But in the day they stayed out away from the clear white sand and if they did come in you could see their shadows a long way away.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ernest Hemingway", "slug": "ernest-hemingway", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernest-hemingway" }, "book": { "title": "Islands in the Stream", "slug": "islands-in-the-stream", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernest-hemingway/islands-in-the-stream" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway#Islands_in_the_Stream_(1970)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:07" }, { "id": "472ce0ee-ad76-4d49-9010-67d4a142be85", "slug": "he-always-thought", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernest-hemingway/the-old-man-and-the-sea/he-always-thought", "text": "He always thought of the sea as la mar, which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her, but they are always said as though she were a woman. Some of the younger fisherman, those who used buoys as floats for their lines or had motorboats bought when the shark lovers had much money, spoke of her as el mar, which is masculine, they spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine, as something that gave or withheld great favors. If she did wild or wicked things, it is because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ernest Hemingway", "slug": "ernest-hemingway", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernest-hemingway" }, "book": { "title": "The Old Man and the Sea", "slug": "the-old-man-and-the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernest-hemingway/the-old-man-and-the-sea" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway#The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea_(1952)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:06" }, { "id": "3c3452d1-e90e-4128-9155-fe0dcba24284", "slug": "anyone-who-goes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernest-hemingway/the-old-man-and-the-sea/anyone-who-goes", "text": "Anyone who goes on the sea the year around in a small power boat does not seek danger. You may be absolutely sure that in a year you will have it without seeking, so you try always to avoid it all you can.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ernest Hemingway", "slug": "ernest-hemingway", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernest-hemingway" }, "book": { "title": "The Old Man and the Sea", "slug": "the-old-man-and-the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ernest-hemingway/the-old-man-and-the-sea" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway#The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea_(1952)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:06" }, { "id": "b75f223c-426e-46c8-846e-0cac3643901d", "slug": "seamen-have-a-custom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jonathan-swift/a-tale-of-a-tub/seamen-have-a-custom", "text": "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.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jonathan Swift", "slug": "jonathan-swift", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jonathan-swift" }, "book": { "title": "A Tale of a Tub", "slug": "a-tale-of-a-tub", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jonathan-swift/a-tale-of-a-tub" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jonathan_Swift#A_Tale_of_a_Tub_(1704)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:49" }, { "id": "814e4daf-4277-47e0-9999-d9dfc7b45791", "slug": "there-leviathan-hugest", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton/paradise-lost/there-leviathan-hugest", "text": "There Leviathan\n\nHugest of living creatures, on the deep\n\nStretched like a promontory sleeps or swims,\n\nAnd seems a moving land, and at his gills\n\nDraws in, and at his trunk spouts out a sea.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Milton", "slug": "john-milton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton" }, "book": { "title": "Paradise Lost", "slug": "paradise-lost", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton/paradise-lost" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "animals", "slug": "animals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/animals" }, { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost#Book_VII", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:47" }, { "id": "4e77cdfc-395b-4d19-997b-6b62ae2aa483", "slug": "the-rising-world", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton/paradise-lost/the-rising-world", "text": "The rising world of waters dark and deep.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Milton", "slug": "john-milton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton" }, "book": { "title": "Paradise Lost", "slug": "paradise-lost", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-milton/paradise-lost" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost#Book_III", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:46" }, { "id": "da1ce5ba-3c13-43ab-9b98-34b771b1007b", "slug": "the-ocean-kept", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/how-to-save-your-own-life/the-ocean-kept", "text": "...the ocean kept falling into itself, gathering itself up, and falling into itself again.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Erica Jong", "slug": "erica-jong", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong" }, "book": { "title": "How to Save Your Own Life", "slug": "how-to-save-your-own-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/how-to-save-your-own-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erica_Jong#How_to_Save_Your_Own_Life_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:40" }, { "id": "c349a1b1-9a24-4a54-b1cc-17dd704a17ef", "slug": "the-snotgreen-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses/the-snotgreen-sea", "text": "The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James Joyce", "slug": "james-joyce", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce" }, "book": { "title": "Ulysses", "slug": "ulysses", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-joyce/ulysses" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ulysses_(novel)#Quotes", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:32" }, { "id": "0cfdb813-339e-4029-ade1-b1ed61fa2366", "slug": "millions-upon-millions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/hawaii/millions-upon-millions", "text": "Millions upon millions of years ago, when the continents were already formed and the principal features of the earth had been decided, there existed, then as now, one aspect of the world that dwarfed all others… a mighty ocean, resting uneasily to the east of the largest continent, a restless ever-changing, gigantic body of water that would later be described as Pacific.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James A. Michener", "slug": "james-a-michener", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener" }, "book": { "title": "Hawaii", "slug": "hawaii", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-a-michener/hawaii" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_A._Michener#Hawaii_(1959)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:37:52" }, { "id": "04ce5692-7954-43c7-a192-5a46e4e5ab99", "slug": "the-sea-did", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities/the-sea-did", "text": "The sea did what it liked, and what it liked was destruction. It thundered at the town, and thundered at the cliffs, and brought the coast down, madly.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Dickens", "slug": "charles-dickens", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens" }, "book": { "title": "A Tale of Two Cities", "slug": "a-tale-of-two-cities", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-dickens/a-tale-of-two-cities" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "the sea", "slug": "the-sea", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-sea" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities#Chapter_IV_-_The_Preparation", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:32:32" } ] }