40 Ocean Quotes for Everyone Who Loves The Sea

One of my favorite ocean quotes, these lines are by Christy Ann Martine Zutautas (1972-), a Canadian poet and writer. This quote about the ocean is from her short poem, Dance With The Waves, written in 2017.

Philippe Victor Diolé (1908-1977) was a French author and undersea explorer, best known for co-authoring seven of the 8-volume series The Undersea Discoveries of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

Cornelia Maria Funke (1958-) is a German author and illustrator of children’s fiction. This ocean quote is from her 2003 young adult fantasy novel Inkheart, the first in a trilogy of the same name.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) was an American poet and educator. One of the “fireside poets” from New England, Longfellow was the most popular American poet of his day. This quote about the sea is from his poem The Secret of the Sea, included in his 1850 book of poetry The Seaside and the Fireside.

Erica Billups is an Atlanta-based poet, artist, and blogger. She’s the owner and lead artist at Liberty & Lilac Paper Co, and the author of this favorite ocean quote.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a Bengali writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, painter, and one of India’s greatest poets. He was the first Asian writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1913. This inspirational ocean quote is from his 1910 mystic play The King Of The Dark Chamber.

Reclusive poet and writer Nayyirah Waheed has been called “perhaps the most famous poet on Instagram” by Jet. She’s published two books of her minimalist poetry—this ocean quote is from her 2013 debut volume entitled salt.

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) was a German poet, writer, and literary critic. Heine is perhaps best known for his early lyric poems, many of which were set to music by composers including Schubert and Schumann. His quote about the sea comes from his romantic poem Seraphina, published in his 1827 Book of Songs.

Richard Russell Riordan Jr. (1964-) is an American author best known for writing the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, about a teenager who discovers he’s the son of the Greek god Poseidon. This sea quote is from his 2005 novel The Lightning Thief, the first book in the series.

Walter Whitman (1819–1892) was an American humanist poet, essayist, and journalist. Whitman is one of the most influential American poets and is often called the father of free verse. His ocean quote is from the poem Miracles, first published in his 1856 volume Leaves of Grass.

John Joly (1857–1933) was an Irish physicist, professor of geology, and inventor, most famous for his development of radiotherapy in the treatment of cancer. Joly also developed the Joly color screen, the first successful process for producing color photographs from a single plate.

James Mercer Langston Hughes (1901–1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. A leader of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes was also an early innovator of jazz poetry. This ocean quote is from his poem Long Trip.

Gertrude Caroline Ederle (1905–2003) was an American competition swimmer known as the “Queen of the Waves”. Ederle was an Olympic champion, former world record-holder in five events, and in 1926 became the first woman to swim across the English Channel.

Larry Ferguson is an American screenwriter and film director whose film credits include Highlander, Beverly Hills Cop II, and Alien 3. Although this sea quote is commonly misattributed to Christopher Columbus, Ferguson actually penned the words, delivered by Sean Connery at the end of the film The Hunt for Red October.

Dr. Sylvia Alice Earle (1935-) is an American marine biologist, oceanographer, explorer, author, and lecturer. Earle was the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Since 1988, she’s been a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, and is also part of Ocean Elders, a group dedicated to protecting the ocean and its wildlife.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) was an American poet and educator. This quote about the ocean is from his poem The Secret of the Sea. It’s often misquoted as “Would you learn the secret of the sea?”, but the original line was “Wouldst thou, —so the helmsman answered; Learn the secret of the sea?”.

Edward Estlin Cummings (1894–1962) was an American modernist poet, painter, essayist, author, and playwright. This ocean quote comes from his 1956 poem maggie and milly and molly and may.

Henrik Johan Ibsen (1828–1906) was a Norwegian modernist playwright and theatre director, often referred to as the “father of realism”. After Shakespeare, Ibsen is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world. This sea quote is from his 1888 play The Lady from the Sea.

David McAlister Barry (1947-) is an American author and columnist. From 1983 until 2005, Barry wrote a nationally syndicated humor column for the Miami Herald. He’s also written many books of humor and parody and several comic novels.

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (1917–2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television host. Clarke co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the most influential films of all time. During the 1980s he hosted several television shows, including Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917–1963) was an American politician and the 35th president of the United States. As a young man, JFK and his family spent summers at their Cape Cod home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, where he enjoyed sailing and swimming in the ocean. This ocean quote is from Kennedy’s speech given at the dinner for the America’s Cup crews on September 14, 1962.

Heinrich Robert Zimmer (1890–1943) was a German Indologist, linguist, and historian of South Asian art, Zimmer is best known for his works Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization and Philosophies of India. He was one of the most important German scholars in Indian philology.

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter (1981-) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She’s one of the world’s best-selling recording artists, and was the first artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 with their first six solo studio albums. In 2020, Beyoncé was included on Time‘s list of 100 women who defined the last century.

James William Buffett (1946-) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, actor, and businessman. Best known for his island-escapist music, Buffett is also a bestselling author as well as the owner of the Margaritaville restaurant chain. This ocean quote is from his 1988 autobiography A Pirate Looks at Fifty.

Gibran Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) was a Lebanese-American writer, poet, and visual artist. Gibran is best known for his 1923 inspirational fiction work The Prophet, one of the best-selling books of all time. This quote about the ocean is translated from his 1921 Arabic-language play Iram, City of Lofty Pillars.

M. L. Borges is a visual artist, poet, and author who writes in various genres, including mystery and romance. This quote about the ocean is from By The Sea, a 2013 collection of paintings and quotes.

Aristotle Socrates Onassis (1906–1975) was a Greek shipping magnate. He owned the world’s largest privately-owned shipping fleet at the time and was one of the world’s richest men. Onassis was well known for marrying former US first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, leading to her nickname of “Jackie O”.

Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) was an American author and aviator. She was the wife of aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh, and they made many exploratory flights together. This sea quote is from her 1955 book Gift from the Sea, an inspirational volume for women that foreshadowed the green movement.

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (1561–1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General, as temporary Regent of England (for a month in 1617), and later as Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon was an influential figure during the scientific revolution, and his works helped develop the scientific method.

Robert Wyland (1956-), known simply as Wyland, is an American artist and conservationist best known for his Whaling Walls, a series of over 100 large outdoor murals featuring life-size images of whales and other sea creatures.

Joshua Slocum (1844–1909) was a Canadian-American writer, sailor, and adventurer. The first person to sail single-handedly around the world, he wrote a book in 1900, Sailing Alone Around the World, about his journey aboard his sloop the Spray. The book—where this ocean quote is taken from—was an international best-seller. Slocum disappeared in November 1909 while aboard his boat and was presumed lost at sea.

Kathryn Kuhlman (1907–1976) was an American evangelist known for hosting healing services. She traveled the US extensively and around the world between the 1940s and 1970s, holding “healing crusades”. In the 60s and 70s, Kuhlman hosted I Believe In Miracles, a weekly television program that was aired nationally in the United States.

Martin Luther (1483–1546) was a German professor of theology, priest, author, composer, Augustinian monk, and an important figure in the Protestant Reformation. This ocean quote comes from the preface to his 1545 Commentary on the Psalms. This quote is often misattributed to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., leader of the American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s.

Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) was an Italian novelist, poet, essayist, short story writer, translator, and literary critic. Although he destroyed many of his personal papers before his death, his diaries (which include this quote) remain and were published as This Business of Living: Diaries 1935-1950.

Anne Stevenson (1933–2020) was an American-British poet and writer. Stevenson was the author of over a dozen volumes of poetry, books of essays, and literary criticism. In 2007, she was awarded the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award for Poetry, and the Poetry Foundation’s Neglected Masters Award. This ocean quote is from her 1977 poem North Sea off Carnoustie.

Ivan Nikolayevich Panin (1855–1942) was a Russian writer and lecturer. After his exile from Russia, Panin emigrated first to Germany and then to the US. Today Panin is best known for claiming to discover numerical patterns in the text of the Hebrew and Greek Bibles. This sea quote is included in his 1899 book, Thoughts.

Katherine O’Flaherty Chopin (1850–1904) was an American short story writer and novelist. Chopin is one of the most frequently read and recognized writers of Louisiana Creole heritage. This ocean quote is from The Awakening, her second novel.

Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853–1890) was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who became one of the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. This inspirational ocean quote is from The Letters of Vincent van Gogh, a collection of over 900 of his personal letters and related manuscripts.

Robert Wyland (1956-), known simply as Wyland, is an American artist and conservationist best known for his Whaling Walls, a series of over 100 large outdoor murals featuring life-size images of whales and other sea creatures.