John Masefield Quotes

All I ask is a tall ship and a star to sail her by.

I want to conquer the unknown. I really, really want to live on the water and captain my own boat. I have dreamed of going around the world on a boat.

My escape is to just get in a boat and disappear on the water.

Sailing is the closest I can get to nature - it's adrenaline, fear, a constant challenge and learning experience, an adventure into the unknown. And of course there is nothing better than wearing the same T-shirt for days and not brushing my hair for weeks.

Whither, O splendid ship, thy white sails crowding,Leaning across the bosom of the urgent West,That fearest nor sea rising, nor sky clouding,Whither away, fair rover, and what thy quest?

Those who spread their sails in the right way to the winds of the earth will always find themselves born by a current towards the open seas.

As far as I am concerned I wish to be out on the high seas. I wish to take my chances with wind, and wave, and star. And I had rather go down in the glory and grandeur of the storm, than rot in any orthodox harbor.

There is nothing so desperately monotonous as the sea, and I no longer wonder at the cruelty of pirates.

There are no signposts in the sea.

I have always had the sea as my playground.

I'd love to have a proper sailing boat and go around the world.

They have a fine breeze and are now we hope, well on their way.

When you grow up by the sea, you spend a good deal of time looking at the horizon. You wonder what on Earth the waves might bring - and where the sea might deposit you - until one day you know you have lived between two places, the scene of arrival and the point of departure.

In the surfing days, that was all there was for me. Sailing, starting around '68, it was kind of the same deal. I always got really into whatever it was I was doing.

In the middle of an ocean on board a ship, one can get a sense of vastness.

The world's a ship on its voyage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow.

While my hand is on the stick, my feet on the rudder, and my eyes on the compass, this consciousness, like a winged messenger, goes out to visit the waves below, testing the warmth of water, the speed of wind, the thickness of intervening clouds. It goes north to the glacial coasts of Greenland, over the horizon to the edge of dawn, ahead to Ireland, England, and the continent of Europe, away through space to the moon and stars, always returning, unwillingly, to the mortal duty of seeing that the limbs and muscles have attended their routine while it was gone.

I would not creep along the coast but steer Out in mid-sea, by guidance of the stars.

For one thing, I was no longer alone; a man is never alone with the wind-and the boat made three.

The powerful wind swept his hair away from his face; he leaned his chest into the wind, as if he stood on the deck of a ship heading into the wind, slicing through the waves of an ocean he’d not yet seen.

Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find."

Not considering this opening worthy of more attention, I continued our pursuit to the Northwest, being desirous to embrace the advantages of the prevailing breeze.

I've been able to carve out spaces for myself. At Sundance, I'm in the mountains - my property is private. I get on a horse and ride for three, four hours. Sometimes five. I get lost. But when I'm in, I'm in.

I love boats. I can be on a boat for days.

If the Spray discovered no continents on her voyage, it may be that there were no more continents to be discovered. She did not seek new worlds, or sail to pow-wow about the dangers of the sea.