17 Calm Sea Quotes To Inspire You

If you search the internet for famous quotes about the ocean and life, there are literally hundreds to choose from. This list focuses solely on the best quotes about calm, smooth seas…

And if you’re looking for calm sea quotes for Instagram, just grab one of these and slap it on a pretty sea picture!

The Best Calm Sea Quotes

A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

This famous quote by the American president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, means that when everything is going well, not much skill is needed. Conversely, when things happen that test our skills, it makes us work harder and achieve more.

Storms draw something out of us that calm seas don’t.

Bill Hybels

This quote by American author, Bill Hybels, is very much along the same vein. It’s about how experiencing difficult times can build us up to become better. In these quotes, the calm sea is a metaphor for easy times.

Great people are not affected by each puff of wind that blows ill. Like great ships, they sail serenely on, in a calm sea or a great tempest.

George Washington

This quote by American president George Washington is about how you don’t need to let yourself be affected by things that are outside of your control.

In a calm sea, every man is a pilot.

John Ray

17th-century English naturalist, John Ray, used the calm sea metaphor to demonstrate how we’re all ready to offer advice when there’s no risk. But, when danger threatens, people aren’t always so keep to step forwards.

If the ocean can calm itself, so can you. We are both saltwater mixed with air.

Nayyirah Waheed

Nayyirah Waheed has been described as ‘the best poet on Instagram’. This quote is about the importance of meditation and self-reflection in achieving calm in difficult situations.

The man who has experienced shipwreck shudders even at a calm sea.

Ovid

This quote by the Roman poet, Ovid, demonstrates how traumatic experiences can have an effect on us for long after the event has finished.

But never have I been a blue calm sea. I have always been a storm.

Stevie Nicks

This line is from the Fleetwood Mac song, Storm. This is a very sad song and people have offered various insights into the meaning behind it. One suggestion is that it means that we can be calm on the outside, but some of us have ‘storms’ within us which can affect how we act.

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.

Willa Cather

This quote by American author, Will Cather, is a testament to those people that survived the Great Depression. It means that we will all encounter challenges, and what matters most is taking away lessons to help us grow.

At night, time becomes a calm sea. It goes on for ever.

Francoise Sagan

This quote by French playwright, Francois Sagan, draws our minds to how quiet and long the night is, by likening it to the view of a smooth ocean.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

Thomas Jefferson

This quote by the third US President, Thomas Jefferson, means that when liberty is abused and morality no longer guides our decisions, then tyranny will take its place.

One’s ships come in over a calm sea.

Florence Scovel Shinn

Florence Scovel Shinn was a 19th-century artist and spiritual teacher. This quote means that if you can be happy, with or without your heart’s desire, then it will suddenly appear. The calm sea is a metaphor for peace and happiness.

The courage to press on regardless – regardless of whether we face calm seas or rough seas, and especially when the market storms howl around us – is the quintessential attribute of the successful investor.

John C. Bogle

John C. Bogle is the founder of investment company Vanguard and the inventor of the index fund. His quote highlights the importance of sticking to your plan no matter what happens

Instead of passing on choppy waters to the next generation, we should endeavour to leave them a calmer sea.

Najib Razak

This quote from the Malaysian prime minister serves as a reminder of how we should strive to make the world a better place for future generations.

It is extraordinary to see the sea; what a spectacle! She is so unfettered that one wonders whether it is possible that she again become calm.

Claude Monet

With this quote, French painter Monet draws attention to how the sea can be incredibly rough, yet still becomes calm again. You could argue it’s a rough seas quote as much as a smooth sea quote.

You have to think of your career the way you look at the ocean, deciding which wave you’re gonna take and which waves you’re not gonna take. Some of the waves are going to be big, some are gonna be small, sometimes the sea is going to be calm. Your career is not going to be one steady march upward to glory.

Alan Arkin

American actor, director and screenwriter, Alan Arkin, uses the ocean as a metaphor for potential career directions in this inspirational quote.

To us large creatures, space-time is like the sea seen from an ocean liner, smooth and serene. Up close, though, on tiny scales, it’s waves and bubbles. At extremely fine scales, pockets and bubbles of space-time can form at random, sputtering into being, then dissolving.

Gregory Benford

Astrophysicist, Gregory Benford, uses the image of a smooth sea to explain the concept of space-time.

Life is like the ocean. It can be calm or still, and rough or rigid, but in the end, it is always beautiful.

Unknown

And there we finish with one more beautiful quote about the calm ocean and how it compares to life itself.

I hope that you’ve found some calm from reading these quotes about calm seas. Speaking quotes like these can help us in times of stress and worry, along with traditional methods such as meditation and the use of tools like anxiety rings and stress balls.

Do you have a favourite calm sea quote?

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Jenni Fielding is the founder of Cruise Mummy. She has worked in the cruise industry since 2015 and has taken over 30 cruises. Now, she helps over 1 million people per month to plan their perfect cruise holidays.

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