The ocean, with its vastness and depth, is a testament to the majesty and mystery of nature.
It’s a world teeming with diverse life forms, from the smallest plankton to the largest whale (and a few wonderfully ugly sea creatures thrown in), each contributing to a balanced, complex ecosystem.
Yet, our oceans, as immense and powerful as they may appear, are not immune to the effects of human activities. The pollution, overfishing, and climate change we cause have led to devastating effects on marine life and the health of our oceans.
The importance of protecting our oceans and their inhabitants cannot be overstated. They regulate our climate, produce a significant portion of the world’s oxygen, and serve as a vital source of food and livelihood for many communities.
We are intrinsically linked to the ocean and its well-being reflects our own.
Over time, many philosophers, environmentalists, and ocean-lovers have contemplated the beauty, power, and vulnerability of our oceans.
They’ve shared their insights, hoping to inspire a deeper appreciation for this vast blue world and a stronger commitment to its preservation.
We’ve gathered some of the most poignant ocean quotes here today — ones that capture its beauty, elucidate our connection to it, and underscore the urgency of its protection.
Whether you are an ardent ocean conservationist, a nature enthusiast, or someone who enjoys long walks on the beach, these quotes will touch your heart and stir your thinking.
Dive into this collection and let the wisdom of the ocean inspire you to be a champion for its preservation:
The Best Ocean Quotes
Famous Quotes
“With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you’re connected to the sea. No matter where on Earth you live.”
— Sylvia Earle
“The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.”
— Robert Wyland
“The heart of man is very much like the sea, it has its storms, it has its tides and in its depths, it has its pearls too.”
— Vincent van Gogh
“The ocean makes me feel really small and it makes me put my whole life into perspective… it humbles you and makes you feel almost like you’ve been baptized. I feel born again when I get out of the ocean.”
— Beyoncé
“The ocean is like a big blue heart that connects all living creatures. We must protect it for the sake of our own survival.”
— Eugenie Clark
“The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea.”
— Karen Blixen
“My soul is full of longing for the secret of the sea, and the heart of the great ocean sends a thrilling pulse through me.”
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”
— Jacques Yves Cousteau
“And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea — whether it is to sail or to watch it — we are going back from whence we came.”
— John F. Kennedy, in a 1962 speech
“The sea possesses a power over one’s moods that has the effect of a will. The sea can hypnotize. Nature in general can do so.”
— Henrik Ibsen
Inspirational Quotes
“As the sea is beautiful not only in calm but also in a storm, so is happiness found not only in peace but also in strife.”
— Ivan Panin
“We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.”
— Mother Teresa
“When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke
“But the sea
which no one tends
is also a garden.”
— William Carlos Williams, Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems
“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”
— Ryunosuke Satoro
“And as life began in the sea, so each of us begins his identical life in a miniature ocean within his mother’s womb.”
— Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us
“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it’s always our self we find in the sea.”
— E. E. Cummings
“Limitless and immortal, the waters are the beginning and end of all things on earth.”
— Heinrich Zimmer
“If the ocean
can calm itself,
so can you.
We are both
salt water
mixed with
air.”
— Nayyirah Waheed
“I wish I could describe the feeling of being at sea, the anguish, frustration, and fear, the beauty that accompanies threatening spectacles, the spiritual communion with creatures in whose domain I sail. There is a magnificent intensity in life that comes when we are not in control but are only reacting, living, surviving. I am not a religious man per se. My own cosmology is convoluted and not in line with any particular church or philosophy. But for me, to go to sea is to glimpse the face of God. At sea, I am reminded of my insignificance — of all men’s insignificance. It is a wonderful feeling to be so humbled.”
— Steve Callahan
“I pray to be like the ocean, with soft currents, maybe waves at times. More and more, I want the consistency rather than the highs and the lows.”
— Drew Barrymore
Save the Ocean Quotes
“The ocean is a global commons, a precious resource that belongs to all of us. It’s our duty to protect and preserve it for future generations.”
— Emily Penn
“People ask: Why should I care about the ocean? Because the ocean is the cornerstone of Earth’s life support system, it shapes climate and weather. It holds most of life on earth. 97% of earth’s water is there. It’s the blue heart of the planet — we should take care of our heart. It’s what makes life possible for us. We still have a really good chance to make things better than they are. They won’t get better unless we take action and inspire others to do the same thing. No one is without power. Everybody has the capacity to do something.”
— Sylvia Earle
“We absolutely need to clean up the plastic that’s already in the ocean. It won’t go away by itself. But we do also need to make sure that no more plastic enters the oceans in the first place. These things should go hand in hand.”
— Boyan Slat
“Protecting the ocean is not just about saving marine life; it’s about safeguarding our own future. Our fate is intimately connected to the health of the ocean, and we must take urgent action to preserve it.”
— Greta Thunberg
“We must commit to a positive programme of ocean recovery to combat the effects of climate breakdown, and boost our oceans’ capacity to tackle climate change.”
— Barry Gardiner
“If man doesn’t learn to treat the oceans and the rain forest with respect, man will become extinct.”
— Peter Benchley
“Just as we have the power to harm the ocean, we have the power to put in place policies and modify our own behavior in ways that would be an insurance policy for the future of the sea, for the creatures there, and for us, protecting special critical areas in the ocean.”
— Sylvia Earle
About World Oceans Day
“To me, celebrating World Ocean Day means celebrating all the efforts that are made by individuals worldwide. It is a chance to recognize the progress we are making and to remind ourselves to keep going because our own wellbeing is dependent on our ocean’s wellbeing.”
— Rada Pandeva, World Ocean Day Youth Advisory Council Member
“I spend almost every day in the waters… photographing what I see, good or bad. I spent World Oceans Day painting a picture of one of my images. For me, this peaceful kingdom needs protection from the human race who are doing so much damage to it. The oceans are the planet’s controlling factor: you lose the health of the oceans, you lose our planet.
— Gill Williams, 58, underwater photographer, in an article from The Guardian
“Youth play an increasingly important role in the development and growth of World Ocean Day, celebrated annually in June, helping to raise the profile of the importance of our one shared ocean that connects us all. No matter where we live, we all depend on a healthy ocean to survive and thrive, and safeguarding the ocean will help us secure a stable climate into the future.”
— World Ocean Day Organization
“As young people we have the power to make a difference and protect our ocean. We can be the voice for the voiceless, the endangered species, and the climate. We can play a pivotal role in decision-making and dialogue, inspiring others to take action.”
— María Paz Dakota Ormeño Vasquez, World Ocean Day Youth Advisory Council Member
“World Oceans Day is an opportunity to celebrate collective action, now more than ever. On this day, we call not only on individuals, but also on governments, scientists, private companies, civil societies and local communities to join this global effort to manage the ocean for our common safety, well-being and prosperity.”
— Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, in a message about World Oceans Day
→ Read and share the best ways to celebrate World Oceans Day
Short Quotes
“The sea always filled her with longing, though for what she was never sure.”
— Cornelia Funke
“The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.”
— Vladimir Nabokov
“The sea does not link to be restrained.”
— Rick Riordan
“Every drop in the ocean counts.”
— Yoko Ono
“The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope.”
— Jacques Yves Cousteau
“I feel we are all islands — in a common sea.”
— Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“The sea is a desert of waves, a wilderness of water.”
— Langston Hughes
“Never underestimate the power of the ocean.”
— Heidi Klum
“At sea, I learned how little a person needs, not how much.”
— Robin Lee Graham
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The sea is as near as we come to another world.”
— Anne Stevenson
“I need the sea because it teaches me.”
— Pablo Neruda
“Dance with the waves, move with the sea. Let the rhythm of the water set your soul free.”
— Christy Ann Martine
→ Read more inspirational short quotes
Wave Quotes
“The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.”
— Vladimir Nabokov
“A wave can kill you. Or you can ride it. It’s sometimes more dangerous to shy away. You can’t live your life in fear. You have to be prepared to get on your board and stand on your feet. If you are in the barrel of a wave you have to ignore the fear. You have to be in that moment. You have to carve on through. You get scared, and the next thing you know you are off your board and smashing your head on a rock. I’m never going to live in fear.”
— Matt Haig, How to Stop Time
“There is no new wave, only the sea.”
— Claude Chabrol
“You’re not a wave; you’re a part of the ocean.”
— Mitch Albom
“Feelings are much like waves: we can’t stop them from coming, but we can choose which one to surf.”
— Jonatan Mårtensson
“Waves are the voices of tides. Tides are life.”
— Tamora Pierce
“The waves of the sea help me get back to me.”
— Jill Davis
“I’m surfing the giant life wave.”
— William Shatner
More Quotes
“Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.”
— Sarah Kay
“‘Doesn’t it seem to you,’ asked Madame Bovary, ‘that the mind moves more freely in the presence of that boundless expanse, that the sight of it elevates the soul and gives rise to thoughts of the infinite and the ideal?’”
— Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
“...I live; I die; the sea comes over me; it’s the blue that lasts.”
— Virginia Woolf, Melymbrosia
“It contains so many colors. Silver at dawn, green at noon, dark blue in the evening. Sometimes it looks almost red. Or it will turn the color of old coins. Right now the shadows of clouds are dragging across it, and patches of sunlight are touching down everywhere. White strings of gulls drag over it like beads. It is my favorite thing, I think, that I have ever seen. Sometimes I catch myself staring at it and forget my duties. It seems big enough to contain everything anyone could ever feel.”
— Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
“To me, the sea is a continual miracle; The fishes that swim — the rocks — the motion of the waves — the ships, with men in them, What stranger miracles are there?”
— Walt Whitman, Miracles
“The sea pronounces something, over and over, in a hoarse whisper; I cannot quite make it out.”
— Annie Dillard
“The land and the ocean are living, breathing entities that supported us, clothed us, fed us, and nurtured our culture from time immemorial.”
— Eden Robinson
“He always thought of the sea as ‘la mar’ which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her. Sometimes those who love her say bad things of her but they are always said as though she were a woman. Some of the younger fishermen, those who used buoys as floats for their lines and had motorboats, bought when the shark livers had brought much money, spoke of her as ‘el mar’ which is masculine. They spoke of her as a contestant or a place or even an enemy. But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as something that gave or withheld great favours, and if she did wild or wicked things it was because she could not help them. The moon affects her as it does a woman, he thought.”
— Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
“The ocean, to me, is like the greatest mystery on the planet. It’s everything I don’t know and everything I want to know.”
— Andrew Schneider
“It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself.”
— Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us
“Hark, now hear the sailors cry,
Smell the sea, and feel the sky,
Let your soul & spirit fly, into the mystic.”
— Van Morrison, Into the Mystic
“The ocean is loud: Ship propellers, sonar, oil and gas drilling and other industrial work make sounds, even if, like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, no one can hear it.”
— Tatiana Schlossberg
“The Caribbean is an immense ocean that just happens to have a few islands in it. The people have an immense respect for it, awe of it.”
— Derek Walcott
“To me, the sea is like a person, like a child that I’ve known a long time. It sounds crazy, I know, but when I swim in the sea I talk to it. I never feel alone when I’m out there.”
— Gertrude Ederle
“I don’t think you can ever get closer to the natural world, than just a man — as in mankind — in an ocean, just you and it. It’s not about conquering the ocean, it’s about working with it.”
— Ben Fogle
“I’ve tried to be responsible when in or interacting with our oceans and I learn more every week. I hope to take care of these precious bodies of water as much as I appreciate them.”
— Kirsten Alana, photographer
“The ocean is the lifeblood of our world. If we were to lose our fish that we appreciate so much by overfishing; or if we were to lose some of our favorite beaches to overbuilding and pollution, then how would we feel? It’s become a case of not knowing what you’ve got until it’s gone.”
— Aaron Peirsol
“We’ve only explored about five percent of our ocean. There are great discoveries yet to be made down there, fantastic creatures representing millions of years of evolution and possibly bioactive compounds that could benefit us in ways that we can’t even yet imagine.”
— Edith Widder
“Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.”
— Robert Henri
→ Read more quotes about nature
