Stand at the edge of the ocean and the world suddenly feels both bigger and simpler.
For centuries, sailors, poets, scientists and dreamers have tried to put the sea into words, and their lines still carry the salt air of the places where they were written.
This collection gathers 64 Ocean Quotes on famous sayings, life, calm, waves and the short lines that work beautifully as captions.
So take a slow breath of sea air with us, and find the line that sounds like your own.
13 Famous Ocean Quotes
The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.
Jacques Cousteau
We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch, we are going back from whence we came.
John F. Kennedy
How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is clearly Ocean.
Arthur C. Clarke
In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.
Kahlil Gibran
The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea.
Isak Dinesen
A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
For all at last return to the sea — to Oceanus, the ocean river, like the ever-flowing stream of time, the beginning and the end.
Rachel Carson
You cannot swim for new horizons until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
William Faulkner
Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths it has its pearls too.
Vincent van Gogh
We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.
Mother Teresa
It is not down on any map; true places never are.
Herman Melville
Ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time.
H. P. Lovecraft
Also Read: Sunset Quotes
13 Ocean Quotes on Life & Wisdom
You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it’s always our self we find in the sea.
E. E. Cummings
Whenever I look at the ocean, I always want to talk to people, but when I’m talking to people, I always want to look at the ocean.
Haruki Murakami
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
Mahatma Gandhi
The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.
Robert Wyland
Even castles made from sand fall to the ocean.
Jimi Hendrix
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.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
John A. Shedd
Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.
André Gide
We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.
William James
The sea is a desert of waves, a wilderness of water.
Langston Hughes
Limitless and immortal, the waters are the beginning and end of all things on earth.
Heinrich Zimmer
With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you’re connected to the sea.
Sylvia Earle
Also Read: Deer Quotes
13 Short Ocean Quotes
The ocean is a poem without words.
Unknown
Salt in the air, sand in my hair.
Unknown
High tides, good vibes.
Unknown
Happiness comes in waves.
Unknown
Seas the day.
Unknown
I need vitamin sea.
Unknown
Sandy toes, sun-kissed nose.
Unknown
Just keep swimming.
Finding Nemo
Ocean air calms the soul.
Unknown
The beach is my happy place.
Unknown
You, me and the sea.
Unknown
Resting beach face.
Unknown
Ocean breeze, salty air, sunkissed hair.
Unknown
Also Read: Fox Quotes
12 Ocean Quotes on Calm & Healing
The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.
Kate Chopin
The ocean’s roar is music to the soul.
Unknown
Where the ocean meets the sky, my heart finds peace.
Unknown
Every wave is a new beginning.
Unknown
Every time I slip into the ocean, it’s like going home.
Sylvia Earle
The ocean teaches us to let go and flow.
Unknown
Like the ocean, life has its tides — sometimes high, sometimes low, always moving.
Unknown
The waves of the sea help me get back to me.
Jill Davis
The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach.
Henry Beston
You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.
Unknown
At the beach, life is different. Time doesn’t move hour to hour but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides, and follow the sun.
Sandy Gingras
I could never in a hundred summers get tired of this.
Susan Branch
Also Read: Winter Quotes
13 Ocean Quotes on Waves, Sailing & Adventure
He always thought of the sea as ‘la mar’ which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her.
Ernest Hemingway
A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind.
Webb Chiles
Catch a wave, and you’re sitting on top of the world.
The Beach Boys
To reach a port, we must sail — sail, not tie at anchor — sail, not drift.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.
Jacques Cousteau
The sea does not like to be restrained.
Rick Riordan
To go out with the setting sun on an empty beach is to truly embrace your solitude.
Jeanne Moreau
The sea! the sea! the open sea! The blue, the fresh, the ever free!
Barry Cornwall
The ocean is a mighty harmonist.
William Wordsworth
Would you learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers, comprehend its mystery!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Break, break, break, on thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
There’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.
Unknown
I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
Isaac Newton
Also Read: Friendship Quotes
Keep your favourite ocean quote close, for captions, cards and the quiet moments when the sound of the waves steadies the day. After all, few things calm the heart quite like the sea at sunset.
