Favorite quotations

[oldsalt_1942]

No doubt a fair amount of climbing up iron ladders can be achieved by an active man in a ship's engine room, but I remember moments when even to my supple limbs and pride of nimbleness the sailing ship's machinery seemed to reach up to the very stars.
For machinery it is, doing its work in perfect silence and with a motionless grace, that seems to hide a capricious and not always governable power, taking nothing away from the material stores of the earth. Not for it the unerring precision of steel moved by white steam and living by red fire and fed with black coal. The other seems to draw its strength from the very soul of the world, its formidable ally, held to obedience by the frailest bonds, like a fierce ghost captured in a snare of something even finer than spun silk. For what is the array of the strongest ropes, the tallest spars and the stoutest canvas against the mighty breath of the Infinite, but thistle stalks, cobwebs, and gossamer?

Joseph Conrad--Mirror of the Sea

[oldsalt_1942]

Last one for now:

"Walk the plank," says Pirate Jim.
"But Capt. Jim, I cannot swim."
"Then you must steer us through the gale."
"But Capt. Jim, I cannot sail."
"Then down with the galley slaves you go."
"But Capt. Jim, I cannot row."
"Then you must be the pirate's clerk."
"But Capt. Jim I cannot work."
"Then a pirate captain you must be."
"Thank you, Jim," says Capt. me.
Shel Silverstein

[oldsalt_1942]

Okay, I lied in the last post, but I've been collecting these things for years...

Houses are but badly built boats so firmly aground that you can not think
of moving them. They are definitely inferior things, belonging to the
vegetable, not the animal world, rooted and stationary, incapable of gay
transition.... The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man
content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat
is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting
place.

Arthur Ransome

[bmartinsen]

Nobody's perfect and I'm Nobody.

or

I thought I was wrong but I was misstaken.

[bobnlesley]

A smart Cruiser sketches out his plans by using a stick in wet sand...



at low tide.

[starfish62]

Good judgement comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgement.

[SilentOption]

rtbates on the pitfalls of nude sailing

"I wouldn't want to whack my member on a shroud as I scampered forward or to sit on it as I plop down to attend to an anchor. I'd find myself having to spend more time trying to keep my penis out of the way than getting things done."

[bill352]

Originally Posted by oldsalt_1942

For machinery it is, doing its work in perfect silence and with a motionless grace, that seems to hide a capricious and not always governable power,

I am not in the least religious, but:

"From coupler-flange to spindle-guide I see thy hand, O God -
Predestination in the stride o' yon connectin'-rod."

Kipling, "M'Andrew's Hymn"

[NW Craig]

How true these are for me, both from one of the great philosphers of our time:

"The ocean has always been a salve to my soul...the best thing for a cut or abrasion was to go swimming in salt water. Later down the road of life, I made the discovery that salt water was also good for the mental abrasions one inevitably acquires on land." -- Jimmy Buffett

"I'd rather die while I'm living than live while I'm dead." -- Jimmy Buffett

craig

[Roy M]

Every operation needs a scapegoat to function smoothly.

[Lodesman]

One of my fave's is only tangentially topical:

“There’s a statistical theory that if you gave a million monkeys typewriters and set them to work, they’d eventually come up with the complete works of Shakespeare. Thanks to the Internet, we now know this isn’t true.” --Ian Hart

[oldsalt_1942]

SIX PHASES OF A PROJECT:
ENTHUSIASM
DISILLUSIONMENT
PANIC
SEARCH FOR THE GUILTY
PUNISHMENT OF THE INNOCENT
PRAISE AND HONOR TO NONPARTICIPANTS

[Ex-Calif]

"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day."

"Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy."

- George Carlin

And this one

Q - "What if there were no hypothetical questions?"

A - "There would be about 99% fewer posts around this place" - LOL

[bill352]

I know everyone else is too highbrow for this; but I'm not proud, so let me nominate:

almost the entire script of "Captain Ron".

[Spin_Drift]

Lose lips, -sinks ships...


Never miss a good chance to shut up....


Speak your mind, but ride a fast horse....


Nature gave us all something to fall back on, and sooner or later we all land flat on it...


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