72+ Best Sailing Quotes: Exclusive Selection

Sailing is the sport or activity of using boats with sail. Profoundly inspirational sailing quotes will challenge the way you think, change the way you live and transform your whole life.

If you’re searching for famous sports quotes and popular basketball quotes that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of profound rodeo quotes, best ice skating quotes and greatest track and field quotes.

Famous Sailing Quotes

I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. Jimmy Dean

To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor. Oliver Wendell Holmes

Have an anchor so that life doesn’t toss you around. Debby Ryan

To desire nothing beyond what you have is surely happiness. 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

Confronting a storm is like fighting God. All the powers in the universe seem to be against you and, in an extraordinary way, your irrelevance is at the same time both humbling and exalting. Francis LeGrande

Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel. Augustus Hare

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

In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth. Rachel Carson

If you are going to do something, do it now. Tomorrow is too late. Pete Goss

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. William Arthur Ward

On a day when the wind is perfect, the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty. Rumi

It’s remarkable how quickly a good and favorable wind can sweep away the maddening frustrations of shore living. Ernest K. Gann

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

A sailing vessel is alive in a way that no ship with mechanical power ever be. Aubrey de Selincourt

The cure for anything is saltwater  sweat, tears, or the sea. Isak Dinesen

I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul. William Ernest Henley

Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. Mark Twain

I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul. William Ernest Henley

One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore. Andre Gide

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. Ernest Hemingway

The charm of singlehanded cruising is not solitude, but independence. Claud Worth

I was amazed that what I needed to survive could be carried on my back. And, most surprising of all, that I could carry it. Cheryl Strayed

Tis the set of the sail that decides the goal, and not the storm of life. Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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

I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship. Louisa May Alcott

The most challenging times bring us the most empowering lessons. Karen Salmansohn

Sometimes there is no time for the sea to calm down! If you have to reach your target, let your voyage start and let the storm be your path! Mehmet Murat Ildan

We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds. Aristotle Onassis

There is nothing more enticing, disenchanting, and enslaving than the life at sea. Joseph Conrad

We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails. Dolly Parton

The sea speaks a language polite people never repeat. It is a colossal scavenger slang and has no respect. Carl Sandburg

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

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

Confronting a storm is like fighting God. All the powers in the universe seem to be against you and, in an extraordinary way, your irrelevance is at the same time both humbling and exalting. Francis LeGrande

Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World. Christopher Columbus

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

It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go. Jim Rohn

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. Helen Keller

The sooner we learn to be jointly responsible, the easier the sailing will be.Ella Maillart

On a day when the wind is perfect, the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty. Rumi

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. Mark Twain

And after two days in civilization we realized we could never stay for long and started to plan our next adventure. Bob Bitchin

The lovely thing about cruising is that planning usually turns out to be of little use. Dom Degnon

When your life is moving too fast and you find yourself in chaos, introduce yourself to each color of the sunset. Christy Ann Martine

The days pass happily with me wherever my ship sails. Joshua Slocum

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. Ernest Hemingway

If one doesn’t know to which port one is sailing, no port is favorable. Lucius Annaneus Seneca

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. Ernest Hemingway

There is no unhappiness like the misery of sighting land again after a cheerful, careless voyage. Mark Twain

It’s in moments like these that you forget how soothing the sea can be, and you remember its power and force. Michelle Segrest

A sailing ship is no democracy; you don’t caucus a crew as to where you’ll go anymore than you inquire when they’d like to shorten sail. Sterling Hayden

We can battle the sea, or we can embrace it. Sometimes she will be sweet and sometimes mean as a snake. We must embrace the experience and trust we will get through it. Michelle Segres

Sailing The fine art of slowly going nowhere at great expense while being cold, wet and miserable. Irv Heller

Set your goals high and don’t stop till you get there. Bo Jackson

Hoist up sail while gale doth last, Tide and wind stay no man’s pleasure. Robert Southwell

Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice. Bethany Hamilton

To meditate is to sail a course, to navigate, among problems many of which we are in the process of clearing up. Jose Ortega y Gasset

You are the one that possesses the keys to your being. You carry the passport to your own happiness. Diane von Furstenberg

It is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage. George William Curtis

You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them. Shonda Rhimes

Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination. Fitzhugh Dodson

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. Amelia Earhart

To desire nothing beyond what you have is surely happiness. 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

The big challenge is to become all that you have the possibility of becoming. You cannot believe what it does to the human spirit to maximize your human potential and stretch yourself to the limit. Jim Rohn

To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor. Oliver Wendell Holmes

There’s a big, wonderful world out there for you. It belongs to you. It’s exciting and stimulating and rewarding. Don’t cheat yourselves out of this promise. Nancy Reagan

Have an anchor so that life doesn’t toss you around. Debby Ryan

I am not afraid. I was born to do this. Joan of Arc

On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale. Alexander Pope