Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing
-- absolutely nothing --
half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.
-Kenneth Grahame Wind in The Willows

A ship is safe in harbor, but that is not what a ship is for. (Thanks Jon)
 
The pieces of a ship taken by themselves will sink.  But when combined together, will
take you anywhere you want to go." (Thanks Jon)

Greatness is not where we stand, but in what direction we are moving....we must sail,
sometimes with the wind, sometimes against it, but sail we must, and not drift nor lie at anchor.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes (Thanks Robert!)

Cruisers don't have plans, just intentions.

It is infinitely easier to shake out a reef when one is bored, than it is to
try to tie one in when one is scared.

The art of the sailor is to leave nothing to chance.
-Annie Van De Wiele

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

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

Only two sailors, in my experience, never ran aground.
One never left port and the other was an atrocious liar.
-Don Bamford

He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea.
 -Thomas Fuller.

Without patience, a sailor I would never be.
-Lee Allred

The sea finds out everything you did wrong.
-Francis Stokes

I start from the premise that no object created by man is as satisfying to his
body and soul as a proper sailing yacht.
-Arthur Beiser 1978

When I forget how talented God is, I look to the sea.
-Whoopi Goldberg

A tourist remains an outsider throughout his visit; but a sailor is part of the
local scene from the monent he arrives.
 -Anne Davison

To young men contemplating a voyage I'd say go.
-Joshua Slocum

The perfection of a yacht's beauty is that nothing should be there for only beauty's sake.
-John MacGregor

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

A small craft in an ocean is, or should be, a benevolent dictatorship.
-Tristan Jones

He was now convinced that the most valuable sail on board was the diesel.
-Ray Kauffman

It looks like frozen snot.
-L. Francis Herreshoff, looking at a Herreshoff Bullseye built of fiberglass.

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

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

If you can't repair it, maybe it shouldn't be on board.
-Lynn and Larry Pardey

The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor.
 -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Any fool can carry on, but a wise man knows how to shorten sail in time.
-Joseph Conrad

I know who you are, but you'll have to wipe your feet.
-Capt. Richard Brown of the schooner America to Prince Albert of England, 1851

To be successful at sea we must keep things simple.
-R. D. (Pete) Culler

Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit.
-Brooks Atkinson

The First Rule For Coastal Cruising: start early; finish early.
-Anonymous

The humblest craft that floats makes its appeal to a seaman by the faithfulness of her life.
 -Joseph Conrad

It is the weather, not work, that wears out sails.
-Thomas Fleming Day

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

No one likes an ugly boat, however cheap or fast.
-Roger Duncan

You are not going to find the ideal boat.
You are not even going to have it if you design it from scratch.
-Carl Lane

Of all the things that man has made, no is so full of interest and charm,
none possesses so distinct a life and character of its own, as a ship.
-Henry Van Dyke

Even now; with a thousand little voyages notched in my belt.
I still feel a memorial chill on casting off.
-E. B. White