How vast the ocean is! It’s hard to imagine how big it really is. Even if we try to picture it in our minds, we can only come up with a fraction of what the ocean holds. It has been said that the ocean contains more than 1,000 times more living matter than all the land on Earth. Despite its enormity, though, the ocean remains a mystery to us. We know so little about it and the creatures that live in it. But we continue to explore and learn more about this amazing place every day.

In honor of National Ocean Month, I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite ocean quotes. I hope they will inspire you to appreciate and protect our oceans as much as possible.

The best ocean quotes

1. Oil is drowning our oceans and drowning our boreal forests. — Winona Laduke

2. Your family’s never in your past. You carry it around with you everywhere. — M.L. Stedman, The Light Between Oceans

3. One who wishes to cross the ocean first builds a ship. — Matshona Dhliwayo

4. Your right of religious freedom ends where my right of religious abstinence begins… — T. Rafael Cimino, Mid Ocean

5. Being over there changes a man. Right and wrong don’t look so different anymore to some. — M.L. Stedman, The Light Between Oceans

6. The journey across the great ocean of existence Is a journey inward ever in deeper and deeper and the deeper you get in the more you meet truth. — Ram Dass

7. There’s nothing wrong with Southern California that a rise in the ocean level wouldn’t cure. — Ross MacDonald

8. Faith is knowing there is an ocean because you have seen a brook. — William Arthur Ward

9. How much time could you spend staring out the ocean, even if it was the ocean you’d loved since you were a boy? — Philip Roth

10. Since writing JAWS, I’ve been lucky enough to do close to forty television shows about wildlife in the oceans, and yes, I have been attacked by sea creatures once in a while. — Peter Benchley

11. It’s August, which means Congress is on recess and Mitch McConnell has shimmied back into the ocean to seek a mate. — Stephen Colbert

12. When the fishbowl gets too small, it’s time to pack up and leave and jump into the lake or ocean. — Travie McCoy

13. ‘for what they make us feel. Like we belong.”_ORS’ — Ocean R Stark

14. Be quiet now and wait. It may be that the ocean one, the one we desire so to move into and become, desires us out here on land a little longer, going our sundry roads to the shore. — Rumi

15. My alar is like the ocean in storm. (Devi) — Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear

16. We’d be trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean. I realize that if we boosted one another, maybe we’d get a little closer. — Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

17. Why do you give way to your ego and pride. Where does it stand in the ocean of time. — Naveen Rajeev

18. Our life is but a wave in the ocean of consciousness. — Russell Eric Dobda

19. I am the glorious sun, the ocean laden with pearls. Within my heart is the grandeur of heaven. — Rumi

20. You were, arecactus tourism. meeting you: granularfractals borrowed from oceans. — Virginia Petrucci

21. You cannot drown a fish in the ocean, no matter how deep you sink it. — Matshona Dhliwayo

22. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red. — William Shakespeare

23. What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams. — Werner Herzog

24. The little lake you love is the biggest ocean for you! — Mehmet Murat ildan

25. ‘which direction?” Robard asked. ”Robard, ” I said exasperated, ”we need a boat. I believe boats are kept at or near the ocean.’ — Michael P. Spradlin

26. We are not what we might be; what we are / Outlaws all extrapolation / Beyond the interval of now and here: / White whales are gone with the white ocean. — Sylvia Plath

27. Pak–china friendship is higher than Himalayas, deeper than ocean, sweeter than honey, and stronger than steel. — Shehbaz Sharif

28. You can never turn your back on the ocean. — Rip Torn

29. A clean pond is more useful than a dirty ocean. — Matshona Dhliwayo

30. There’ll be oceans of talk and emotions without end. — Virginia Woolf

31. Of no agenor of any religion, or party or profession. The body and substance of his works came out of the unfathomable depths of his own oceanic mind. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge

32. …. Blesstheir believing happiness will make them happy;that the ocean is magical, a kingdomwhere we go to be human, and grateful. — Philip Schultz, Failure

33. Let us not compare the genius with the clever — ocean with the lake!

34. We are all born in a little port but not all of us sail the vast oceans! Majority remains in the port! — Mehmet Murat ildan

35. Take something you really don’t think about: Plastics in the ocean. I mean plastics in the ocean have an enormous ecological effect. — Noam Chomsky

36. Tell Evil men of your sins and they will use it against you Tell a sinner of your sins and they will pray for you — Ocean Crisstopher Poet

37. I love a boy with sun–kissed hair, With ocean storms in his bright blue eyes, I love a boy who drinks my tears when I cry. — Petra March, A Veil of Glass and Rain

38. A big island of library, in the middle of an ocean, away from all the fools of the world, would this place not be a real paradise? — Mehmet Murat ildan

39. Falling in love is like seeing the ocean for the very first time, when all of your life you’ve been stepping in puddles. — Rina Nath

40. The serenity of the lulling ocean is a wondrous thing to behold..more precious than the gems coveted and covered in platinum or gold… — Oksana Rus

41. Love rests on no foundation. It is an endless ocean, with no beginning or end. — Rumi

42. Sometimes people just need thunderbolts. Thunderbolts to climb like stairs. Sometimes people just need a talisman. A promise in the lectern of their hands. — Matt Ferrara, An Ocean of Maybe

43. The reward for being sensitive is that we’re held by the Universe, the way the ocean in its buoyancy holds up a raft. — Mark Nepo

44. Nobody actually looks like what they really are on the inside. You don’t. I don’t. — Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

45. There is an ocean of silence between us… and I am drowning in it. — Ranata Suzuki

46. Everybody needs a seashell in her bathroom to remind her the ocean is her home. — Sue Monk Kidd

47. The universe is an example of love. Like a tree. Like the ocean. Like my body. Like my wheelchair. I see the love. — Ram Dass

48. A clean pond is more useful than a dirty ocean. — Matshona Dhliwayo

49. I have one small drop of knowing in my soul. Let it dissolve in your ocean. — Rumi

50. Does not heed to the darkWith its shimmering light, Moon quietly bathes the ocean — Somali K Chakrabarti

Conclusion

As we can see, the ocean is a source of inspiration for many people. From poets to politicians, everyone can find something to love about the ocean. From the vastness of its waters to the beauty of its creatures, the ocean has something for everyone. No matter who you are, there is something to be gained from spending time on, in, or near the ocean. May these quotes help to remind you of the beauty, power, and mystery of the ocean and all that it offers.