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Sail away from the safe harbour into the open sea for that’s what boats are for

• A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for. Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper
• For ships are safe in harbour, but that’s not what ships are for. Tom Kimmel
• Seek opportunity, not security. A boat in a harbour is safe, but in time its bottom will rot out. Jackson Brown Jr.
• So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. Mark Twain
• The boat is safer anchored at the port; but that’s not the aim of boats. Paulo Coelho
• The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure thing boat never get far from the shore. Dale Carnegie
• He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea. Thomas Fuller
• Life as a race,  Life as sport,  Life is a game,  Competition,  Strategy,  Exploration

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Have the courage to sail into unchartered territories

• Long ago, mapmakers sketched dragons on maps as a sign to sailors that they would be entering unknown territory at their own risk. Some sailors took this sign literally and were afraid to venture on. Others saw the dragons as a sign of opportunity, a door to virgin territory.  Similarly, each of us has a mental map of the world complete with dragons.  Where does fear hold you back? What dragons can you slay?  Roger von Oech
• No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to unchartered land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit. Helen Keller
• The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channelled toward some great good. Brian Tracy
• We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Courage,  Risk taking,  Exploration,  Discovery

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Know what port you’re steering for

• If a man does not know what port he is steering for, no wind is favourable to him. Seneca
• The master of a single trade can support a family. The master of seven trades cannot support himself. The wind is never for the sailor who knows not to what port he is bound. Og Mandino
• Without goals, and plans to reach them, you are like a ship that has set sail with no destination. Fitzhugh Dodson
• Dreams,  Goal Setting,  Begin with the end in mind,  Purpose,  Clarity

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To reach a port, you must set sail, not drift or tie at anchor

• To reach a port we must set sail – sail, not tie at anchor. Sail, not drift.  Franklin D. Roosevelt
• I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. Oliver Wendell Holmes
• Action,  Effort,  Make a start,  Idleness,  Laziness,  Procrastination

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A zigzag line of a hundred tacks often creates the straightest course

• The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Use your ideals like stars to navigate your way

• Our ideals resemble the stars, which illuminate the night. No one will ever be able to touch them. But the men who, like the sailors on the ocean, take them for guides, will undoubtedly reach their goal. Carl Shurz
• Ideals,  Principles,  Values,  Stars

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Use your purpose and character to steer you

• A man without character is like a ship without a rudder. Karl G. Maeser
• The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder. Thomas Carlyle
• Purpose,  Character,  Integrity

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You can’t control the wind but you can adjust your sails

• I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. Jimmy Dean
• Life is like sailing. You can use any wind to go in any direction.  Robert Brault
• One ship drives east and another west, with the self-same winds that blow. ‘Tis the set of the sails and not the gales that determines where they go.  Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate, as we voyage along through life; ’tis the set of a soul that decides its goal and not the calm or the strife. Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. William Arthur Ward
• The real skill is to raise the sails and to catch the power of the wind as it passes by. Thomas Berry
• The effect of sailing is produced by a judicious arrangement of the sails to the direction of the wind. William Falconer
• I can’t control the wind but I can adjust the sail. Ricky Skaggs
• When the storms of life come, adjust your sails.
• Tis the set of the sail that decides the goal, and not the storm of life. Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• Sometimes our circumstances are like a favourable breeze that make it easier to move in our desired direction. At other times, they require that we make constant adjustment in an effort to stay on course. And much like the wind, circumstances are often beyond our control. Jonathan Wells
• When the winds of life change, we need the skill and adaptability to change with them. Jonathan Wells
• Adaptability,  Flexibility,  Planning

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Sometimes you’ll sail with the wind, sometimes against it

• To reach our goal, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must sail and not drift, not lie at anchor. Oliver Wendell Holmes
• Luck,  Momentum,  Adversity,  Challenge

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Blow into your own sails by harnessing the power of your passion and desire

• Dreaming is essential, but it’s only part of the equation. You’ve got to put a strategy into play. Passion is the wind in your sails, and practicality is the rudder. You need both to get where you’re going. Danielle LaPorte
• Emotional talent is the capacity to stimulate and draw upon our natural fountain of energy—to learn to blow into our own sails. We develop emotional talent not by relying on motivation all the time but by applying our will no matter how we feel. Dan Millman
• On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail, reason the card, but passion is the gale. Alexander Pope
• God made man to go by motives, and He will not go without them, any more than a boat without steam or a balloon without gas. Henry Ward Beecher
• Do what you love,  Passion,  Enthusiasm,  Motivation,  Desire

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Use thought as the wind and knowledge as the sail

• Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail. David Hare
• Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel. Augustus William Hare
• Thinking,  Reflection,  Knowledge,  Wisdom

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Use rough seas to increase your skills as a mariner

• A smooth sea never made a skilful mariner.
• I am not afraid of storms… for I am learning to sail my ship. Louise May Alcott
• Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempest. Epicurus
• There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm. Willa Cather
• We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds. Aristotle Onassis
• A man should learn to sail in all winds. Italian Proverb
• … when the sea was calm all boats alike showed mastership in floating. William Shakespeare
• Adversity,  Challenge,  Skill,  Learning

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It’s not the ship but the skill of the mariner that make the most difference

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

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Face the storms head on

• It is better to meet danger than to wait for it. He that is on a lee shore, and foresees a hurricane, stands out to sea and encounters a storm to avoid a shipwreck. Charles Caleb Colton
• Storms,  Face life’s challenges

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Enjoy the challenge of difficult conditions

• There’s no thrill in easy sailing when the skies are clear and blue. There’s no joy in merely doing things which anyone can do. But there is some satisfaction that is mighty sweet to take, when you reach a destination that you thought you’d never make. Spirella
• Life as a worthwhile struggle

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If your boat is chronically leaking, sometimes it better to change to another vessel

• Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks. Warren Buffett
• Change,  Adaptability,  Flexibility,  Trying a new approach,  Experimentation

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Small leaks of negativity can sink a ship

• Avoid destructive thinking. Improper negative thoughts sink people. A ship can sail around the world many, many times, but just let enough water get into the ship and it will sink. Just so with the human mind. Let enough negative thoughts or improper thoughts get into the human mind and the person sinks just like a ship. Alfred Montapert
• An entire sea of water can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Similarly, the negativity of the world can’t put you down unless you allow it to get inside you. Goi Nasu
• Negativity, Pessimism,  Positive thinking,  Optimism

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Beware of small leaks for they can sink even a large ship

• Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship. Benjamin Franklin

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Resist the temptation to bail out the moment the boat starts leaking

• If you don’t make a total commitment to whatever you’re doing, then you start looking to bail out the first time the boat starts leaking. It’s tough enough getting that boat to shore with everybody rowing, let alone when a guy stands up and starts putting his life jacket on. Lou Holtz
• Perseverance

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Recognise we are all in the same boat, in a stormy sea

• We are all in the same boat, in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty. K. Chesterton
• We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• We are the boat, we are the sea, I sail in you, you sail in me. Lorre Wyatt
• We all in the same boat brother. You rock it too far to the right you fall in the waddah, rock it too far to the left you fall in the same waddah, and it’s just as wet on both sides. Huddie Ledbetter
• The sooner we learn to be jointly responsible, the easier the sailing will be. Ella Maillart
• Life as a storm,  Unity,  Oneness,  Cooperation,  Teamwork

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Everyone needs to row together to move forwards

• A boat doesn’t go forward if each one is rowing their own way. Swahili proverb

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Make sure you’re rowing in the right direction

• Rowing harder doesn’t help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction. Kenichi Ohmae

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Row the boat with the current

• It is possible and desirable to steer your own course, within the general direction of the flowing tide. It is just not smart or productive to try and row your little boat against the strong current of life. That is a sure way to get shipwrecked! Amanda Harvey
• Take a look at your natural river. What are you? Stop playing games with yourself. Where’s your river going? Are you riding with it? Or are you rowing against it? Don’t you see that there is no effort if you’re riding with your river? Frederick Carl Frieseke
• I believe in going with the flow. I don’t believe in fighting against the flow. You ride on your river and you go with the tides and the flow. But it has to be your river, not someone else’s. Everyone has their own river, and you don’t need to swim, float, sail on their’s, but you need to be in your own river and you need to go with it. And I don’t believe in fighting the wind. You go and you fly with your wind. Let everyone else catch their own gusts of wind and let them fly with their own gusts of wind, and you go and you fly with yours. JoyBell C.
• Go with the flow,  Non-resistance,  Effortlessness

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If the current upsets your boat, sometimes it’s best to lie on your back and float

• When the tides of life turn against you and the current upsets your boat, don’t waste those tears on what might have been, just lie on your back and float.

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Don’t wait for your boat to come in, swim out to it

• Don’t wait for your ship to come in, and feel angry and cheated when it doesn’t. Get going with something small. Irene Kassorla
• Don’t wait for your ship to come in, swim out to it. Cathy Hopkins
• Be proactive,  Opportunity

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Increase your commitment by burning your ships

• Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by so doing can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win, essential to success. Napoleon Hill
• Commitment

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Anchor your life with more than one hope

• A ship ought not to be held by one anchor, nor life by a single hope. Epictetus
• Hope

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If you get shipwrecked, remember to sing in the lifeboats

• Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats. Voltaire
• Life as a song,  Music

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Realise what floats your boat and pursue that

• Becoming YOU is your purpose. You’re the very purpose of your existence. Realizing what lights your fire and floats your boat—THAT’s your life purpose. What else could it be? Danielle LaPorte
• Do what you love,  Passion

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To catch a boat, you must be near the river

• If one wants to get a boat ride, one must be near the river. Anchee Min
• Proactiveness,  Preparation

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Look forward where you’re going, not back where you’ve come from

• A lot of people go through life like they are rowing a boat. They look at where they have been rather than where they are going.
• So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. Scott Fitzgerald
• Vision,  The future,  Regret,  The past

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The best way to take off is often against the wind

• When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. Henry Ford
• Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it. Winston Churchill
• Effort,  Hard work

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More life lessons from sailing

• When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal. Napoleon Hill
• The goal is not to sail the boat, but rather to help the boat sail herself. John Rousmaniere
• There is a rule in sailing where the more manoeuvrable ship should give way to the less manoeuvrable craft. I think this is sometimes a good rule to follow in human relationships as well. Joyce Brothers
• He is the best sailor who can steer within the fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obstacles. Henry David Thoreau
• We set the sail; God makes the wind. Proverb
• To desire and strive to be of some service to the world, to aim at doing something which shall really increase the happiness and welfare and virtue of mankind – this is a choice which is possible for all of us; and surely it is a good haven to sail for. Henry Van Dyke
• It’s not the towering sail, but the unseen wind that moves the ship. Proverb
• Hoist up sail while gale doth last. Tide and wind stay no man’s pleasure. Robert Southwell
• Most people are willing to take the Sermon on the Mount as a flag to sail under, but few will use it as a rudder by which to steer. Oliver Wendell Holmes
• Don’t sail out farther than you can row back. Danish Proverb
• We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end. Blaise Pascal
• I want my mind to be a sail, susceptible to any breeze that might be blowing across the lake of consciousness. William Collins
• It is like a boat going to the ocean. Before it reaches the ocean, it is dragged with much effort, but once it reaches the ocean it is propelled without effort by the wind. The distance it travels on the ocean in one day is farther than it could be dragged by the force in a hundred years. Avatamsaka Sutra
• There are ships sailing to many ports, but not a single one goes where life is not painful. Fernando Pessoa
• Keep your hand on the helm. Matthew Goldman
• The days pass happily with me wherever my ship sails. Joshua Slocum
• The art of the sailor is to leave nothing to chance. Annie Van De Wiele
• I hate storms, but calms undermine my spirits. Bernard Moitessier
• Only two sailors, in my experience, never ran aground. One never left port and the other was an atrocious liar. Don Bamford

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More life lessons from rowing

• The man who rows the boat seldom has time to rock it. Bill Copeland
• Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat. Jean-Paul Sartre
• Learning is like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back. Chinese Proverbs
• Internally, you experience rowing as a graphic microcosm of life – solitude, learning, work, rest, nourishment, sharing and ultimately challenge. Allen Rosenberg
• You can’t row a boat in two directions at the same time.
• The fellow who pulls the oars seldom has time to rock the boat.
• Nodding the head does not row the boat. Irish Sayings

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More life lessons from ships and boats

• If my ship sails from sight, it doesn’t mean my journey ends, it simply means the river bends. John Enoch Powell
• If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. Antoine de Saint- Exupery
• Our actions are like ships which we may watch set out to sea, and not know when or with what cargo they will return to port. Iris Murdoch
• Prejudice is a raft onto which the shipwrecked mind clambers and paddles to safety. Ben Hecht
• Tears are a river that takes you somewhere. Tears lift your boat off the rocks, off dry ground, carrying it downriver to someplace better. Clarissa Pinkola Estes
• Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods. Albert Einstein
• Although we are in different boats, you in your boat and we in our canoe, we share the same river of life. Chief Oren Lyons
• One takes what the river offers, both good and bad. The joy of living by running water far outweighs the sorrow. Matthew Goldman
• The sea hates a coward. Eugene O’Neill
• Help thy brother’s boat across, and Lo! Thine own has reached the shore. Hindu Proverb
• A rising tide lifts all boats. Proverb
• Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need – a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two, enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing. Jerome K. Jerome
• To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness, but life without meaning is the torture of restlessness and vague desire- It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.  Edgar Lee Masters
• Keep your feet on the deck, your hands on the tiller, your eyes on the horizon and your beer in the fridge! B.E. Marshall
• Life is like stepping onto a boat that is about to sail out to sea and sink. Shunryu Suzuki
• The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder. Thomas Carlyle
• Reason means truth and those who are not governed by it take the chance that someday the sunken fact will rip the bottom out of their boat. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
• Our passions are the winds that propel our vessel. Our reason is the pilot that steers her. Without winds the vessel would not move and without a pilot she would be lost. Proverb
• You cannot sink someone else’s end of the boat and still keep your own afloat. Charlie Brower
• Don’t set sail on someone else’s star. African Proverb

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• A lot of people ask me if I were shipwrecked, and could only have one book, what would it be? I always say ‘How to Build a Boat. Stephen Wright
• A trip through a sewer in a glass-bottomed boat. Wilson Mizner
• Aground: When a boat makes the discovery that all water has land under it.
• Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk. Sir Francis Chichester
• Baby, you’ve bought yourself a cruise on the Love Boat. I’ll be your captain.
• Basically, my wife was immature. I’d be at home in the bath and she’d come in and sink my boats. Woody Allen
• Be the lighthouse…. not the rescue boat. Lauren Zimmerman
• Boat: A hole in the water surrounded by wood into which one pours money.
• Confidence is going after Moby Dick in a rowboat and taking the tartar sauce with you. Zig Ziglar
• Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he’ll sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
• He couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat.
• He not only lied about the size of his boat, he made me row it.
• How do you know if you’ve got a good mechanic? By the size of his boat.   Tom Magliozzi
• I knew a guy who had a waterbed on a houseboat to cancel out the rocking. Wendy Liebman
• I was taught to swim the old way. Pa took me into the middle of the lake in his boat, threw me in. The swim to shore was not so bad. It was getting out of the sack that was difficult.
• Many who would not take the last cookie would take the last lifeboat. Mignon McLaughlin
• My ancestors didn’t come over on the Mayflower but they were there to meet the boat. Will Rogers
• Noah was a brave man to sail in a wooden boat with two termites.
• Oar: Clumsy wooden implement used to moisten boat occupants.
• Prejudice is a raft onto which the shipwrecked mind clambers and paddles to safety. Ben Hecht
• Someday my boat will come in, and with my luck I’ll be at the airport.

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