Oceans Quo-ceans

A Clean Ocean Action guide to some amazing quotes about big blue.

We here at Clean Ocean Action thought it about time we shared some of our inspiration (to save the oceans) on our blog!  Enjoy:

If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me….Were Niagara but a cataract of sand, would you travel your thousand miles to see it?  Why did the poor poet of Tennessee, upon suddenly receiving two handfuls of silver, deliberate whether to buy him a coat, which he sadly needed, or invest his money in a pedestrian trip to Rockaway Beach?  Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to sea?  Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land?  Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy? Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity, and own brother of Jove? Surely all this is not without meaning.  And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned.  But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans.  It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.

~ Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Every drop in the ocean counts.

~ Yoko Ono, Artist

How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.

~ Arthur C. Clarke, Scientist & Writer

I hope for your help to explore and protect the wild ocean in ways that will restore the health and, in so doing, secure hope for humankind. Health to the ocean means health for us.

~ Sylvia Earle, Ocean Hero

It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean.

~ John Locke, Thinker

Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.

~ John F. Kennedy, President

No one would have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in the storm.

~ Charles Kettering, Inventor

Roll on, deep and dark blue ocean, roll. Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain. Man marks the earth with ruin, but his control stops with the shore.

~ Lord Byron, Poet

Sponges grow in the ocean. That just kills me. I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be if that didn't happen.

~ Steven Wright, Comedian

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