The sea never changes and its works, for all the talks of men, are wrapped in mystery.
There is a kind way of assisting our fellow-creatures which is enough to break their hearts while it saves their outer envelope.
I can’t tell if a straw ever saved a drowning man, but I know that a mere glance is enough to make dspair pause. For in truth, we who are creatures of impulse, are creatures of despair.
As a general rule, a reputation is built on manner as much as on achievement.
Nowhere else than upon the sea do the days, weeks, and months fall away quicker into the past. They seem to be left astern as easily as the light air-bubbles in the swirls of the ship’s wake.
The revolutionary spirit is mighty convenient in this, that it frees one from all scruples as regards ideas.
To be a great autocrat you must be a great barbarian.
Some of us, regarding the ocean with understanding and affection, have seen it looking old, as if the immemorial ages had been stirred up from the undisturbed bottom of ooze. For it is a gale of wind that makes the sea look old.
The real significance of crime is in its being a breach of faith with the community of mankind.
It is not Justice the servant of men, but accident, hazard, Fortune-the ally of patient Time-that holds an even and scrupulous balance.
Fiction is history, human history, or it is nothing.
My task is to make you hear, feel and see. That and no more, and that is everything.
Being a lady is a frightfully troublesome assignment, since it comprises mainly in managing men.
I am a great foe of favoritism in public life, in private life, and even in the delicate relationship of an author to his works.
Books may be written in all sorts of places. Verbal inspiration may enter the berth of a mariner on board a ship frozen fast in a river in the middle of a town.
A task, any task, undertaken in an adventurous spirit acquires the merit of romance.
The ocean has the conscienceless temper of a savage autocrat spoiled by much adulation.
Mathematics commands all my respect, but I have no use for engines.
I like what is in the work – the chance to find yourself.
If you don’t make mistakes, you don’t make anything .