Seaworthy Quotes

I once took on Inktober. If you haven't heard of it, Inktober is a drawing challenge where you have to follow a one word prompt and do an ink drawing every day for the month of October. I can't draw for the life of me, so I decided to draw out some words instead. I took a notebook and each day I wrote quotes or excerpts from some of my favorite books.

So, some of these quotes below are from when I did Inktober, some quotes I find thought-inducing or inspirational, some quotes aren't from books at all, other quotes are just too damn good. I first intended to stick to pirate-themed or sea-style quotes, but you'll come across a few (many) stragglers.

I'll probably come across even more quotes as time goes on, and will want to do more posts like this. But for now, enjoy these geeky quotes.

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Will Turner: How did Jack get off the island?

Mr. Gibbs: Well, I tell ye. He waded out in the shallows and he waited there three days and three nights, 'til all manner of sea creatures 'came acclimated to his presence. And on the fourth morning, he roped himself a couple of sea turtles, lashed 'em together, and made a raft.

Will Turner: He roped a couple of sea turtles?

Mr. Gibbs: Aye, sea turtles!

Will Turner: . . .What did he use for rope?

Captain Jack Sparrow: Human hair. From my back.

—Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

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“There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory.”

— Sir Francis Drake

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“Stars are beautiful, but they may not take an active part in anything, they must just look on for ever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was. So the older ones have become glassy-eyed and seldom speak (winking is the star language), but the little ones still wonder.”

— J.M. Barrie (From Peter Pan)

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“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.”

— Franklin Roosevelt

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"No cause is lost if there is but one fool left to fight for it."

—William Turner (From Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End)

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"I try not to think. It interferes with being nuts."

—Leo Valdez (from Rick Riordan's The Mark of Athena)

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"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest —

yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!"

—Flint's Crew (From Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island)

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"I feel as though I am always writing my first draft. As though my life is a series of edits that I never have time to complete."

—Courtney Peppernell (From Pillow Thoughts)

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"Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty."

—Oscar Wilde (From The Picture of Dorian Gray)

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"Now my chasms are all o'erthrown,

and what strength I have's mine own,

which is most faint: now, 'tis true,

I must be here confined by you,

or sent to Naples. Let me not.

Since I have my dukedom got,

and pardon'd the deceiver, dwell

In this bare island by your spell;

But release me from my bonds

with the help of your good hands:

Gentle breath of yours my sails

must fill, or else my project fails,

which was to please: now I want.

Spirits to enforce, art to enchant;

And my ending is despair,

unless I be relieved by prayer,

which pierces so, that it assaults

Mercy itself, and frees all faults,

as you from crimes would pardon'd be,

Let your indulgence set me free."

—Prospero (From Shakespeare's The Tempest)

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"Cyclops, you asked my noble name, and I will tell it; but do you give the stranger's gift, just as you promised. My name is Nobody. Nobody I am called by Mother, Father, and by all my comrades."

— Odysseus (From Homer's The Odyssey)

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"The invitation did say it was a surprise party. And what kind of host would I be. . .

. . . If I didn't have a little extra for the worst of the Bat-Fakes? The one that makes my Batman the weakest."

—The Joker (From New 52 DC Comics, Scott Snyder's Nightwing issues #15-16)

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“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.”

— Chiron (From Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles)

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Juno: "All roads lead there child. You should know that."

Percy: "Detention?”

— Rick Riordan (From The Son of Neptune)

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“Thus fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself.”

— Daniel Defoe (From Robinson Crusoe)

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(While contemplating the color blue)

"It is easier, of course, to find dignity in one’s solitude. Loneliness is solitude with a problem. Can blue solve the problem, or can it at least keep me company within it? — No, not exactly. It cannot love me that way; it has no arms. But sometimes I do feel its presence to be a sort of wink — Here you are again, it says, and so am I."

—Maggie Nelson (From Bluets)

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“A funny thing happened on the way to my potential."

—From Arabian Nights

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"Damnation seize my Soul if I give you Quarters, or take any from you!"

—Blackbeard

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"A scattered dream that's like a far-off memory, a far-off memory that's like a scattered dream. I want to line the pieces up, yours and mine."

—Sora (From Kingdom Hearts I)

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“Well, maybe it started that way. As a dream, but doesn’t everything. Those buildings. These lights. This whole city. Somebody had to dream about it first. And maybe that is what I did. I dreamed about coming here, but then I did it.”

—James Henry Trotter (From Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach)

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"Do not be afraid; our fate

Cannot be taken from us;

it is a gift."

—Dante Alighieri (From The Divine Comedy)

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"We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are."

—Sirius Black (From JK Rowling's Order of the Phoenix)

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"If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself."

—Sally Jackson (From Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief)

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"Now you listen to me, James Hawkins. You got the makings of greatness in you, but you got to take the helm and chart your own course. Stick to it, no matter the squalls! And when the time comes you get the chance to really test the cut of your sails, and show what you're made of... well, I hope I'm there, catching some of the light coming off you that day."

— Long John Silver (From Treasure Planet)

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May no seas fare smooth.

—Andi May