boats Quotes

“Well, you’ve been brought here against your will, just like I have. If you ask me, we’re all in the same boat. And it’s leaking.”

“You had to give yourself up to it spiritually; you had to surrender yourself absolutely to it. When you were done and walked away from the boat, you had to feel that you had left a piece of yourself behind in it forever, a bit of your heart... And a lot of life is like that too, the parts that really matter anyway.”

“Sully suffers from a stutter, simple syllables will clutter, stalling speeches up on beaches like a sunken sailboat rudder.”

“And there were so many boats. Isabel’s family had worked in secret all night with the Castillos, worried someone might hear them, but apparently, everybody else had been doing the same thing. There were inflatable rafts, Canoes with homemade outriggers. Rafts made of inner tubes tied together.”

″‘I see rocks!’ someone at the front of the dinghy yelled, and there was a loud POOM! like a bomb exploding, and Mahmoud went tumbling into the sea.”

“They glued together the giant pieces of stale bread sandwich-style with peanut butter... took the absolute necessities with them, and set sail on their rafts for a new land. ”

“The tramp steamer Drake plowed away from the coast of India and pushed its blunt prow into the Arabian Sea, homeward bound.”

“The ducklings liked the new island so much that they decided to live there. All day long they follow the swan boats and eat peanuts.”

″‘What I am wondering,’ said the Doctor, ‘is where we are going to get another boat to go home in...Oh well, perhaps we’ll find one lying about on the beach that nobody is using.‘”

“Think of black water. Think up a white sky. Think up a boat. Think of BLOOGS blowing by.”

“Mop was in a boat sailing in a sparkly blue sea... but it was a bit dark and quiet. It wasn’t quite right.”

“This boat never go down. I make myself. Very safe boat.” He pushed us off and jumped in. I never ceased to be amazed at his extraordinary agility and strength. He rowed with a single oar, standing in the stern of the boat, more as if he was punting. Very soon we were out beyond the shelter of the cave and into the swell of the open sea.

“Duffy saw a boat. ‘Ahoy there!’ Duffy shouted. ‘I must catch up with the runaway train!‘”

“The Rodent, for that was the boat’s name, proved to be very well made and very well suited to the sea. And Amos, after one miserable day of seasickness, proved to be a natural sailor, very well suited to the ship.”

“Amos, a little speck of a living thing in the vast living universe, felt thoroughly akin to it all. Overwhelmed by the beauty and mystery of everything, he rolled over and over and right off the deck of his boat and into the sea.

“The Great Storm-Cat is stirring, thought Mowzer as she watched at her window. The wind whined like a wild thing about the high headlands. It came hunting the fishing boats in their hidden harbours. When the Great Storm-Cat is howling, thought Mowzer, it is best to stay snug indoors by a friendly fire. “

“And so it was that he was taken off guard as the little boat made its bid for freedom. Soothed by the sweetness of Mowzer’s serenade, the Great Storm-Cat paused in his prowling and pulled back his giant cat’s paw for a mere moment. Swiftly the little boat passed through the Mousehole and out into the open sea. Then the Great Storm-Cat played with them as a cat plays with a mouse. He would let them loose for a little as they fought their way towards the fishing grounds. Then down would come his giant cat’s paw in a flurry of foam and water. But he did not yet strike to sink them, for that would have spoiled his sport.”

“She knew that the game serves only to sharpen the appetite for the feast to follow. It is his meal or mine, thought Mowzer, as she looked at the floundering fish in the belly of the boat. Blue, green and silver, they glistened in the greyness. It made her mouth water to look at them.”

“All day they fished in a seething sea. The waves were so high and the clouds were so low that they soon lost sight of the shore. And all the time the Great Storm-Cat played with the little boat, striking it and then losing it, but never quite sinking it. And whenever his claws grew to sharp, Mowzer would sing to him to soften the edge of his anger.”

″‘Stroke! We’re cockswain calling ‘Stroke!‘”

“With his pockets full of coins he walked through Portsmouth Market. He bought an iron kettle to hang over the fire at home and for his daughter he bought an embroidery needle that came from a boat in the harbor that had sailed all the way from England and for his son he bought a Barlow knife for carving birch brooms with and for the whole family he bought two pounds of wintergreen peppermint candies.”

“Sometimes at night, as Mr. Grinling lay sleeping in his warm bed, the ships would toot to tell him that his light was shining brightly and clearly out to sea.”

“After breakfast, they went out in Grandpa’s boat to check the nets. Sometimes they were full of fish. Sometimes there was nothing but a bit of seaweed.”

″ ‘Have you a place for me?’ said the sheep. ‘Yes, but don’t keep bleating.’ ”

″ I’d like a ride,′ said the cat. ‘Very well,’ said Mr. Grumpy. ‘But you’re not to chase the rabbit.’ ”

“For a little while, they all went along happily but then…The goat kicked. The calf trampled. The chickens flapped. The sheep bleated.”

“you’ll be all right,” said Hanson. “As long as you don’t rock the boat, then they think”

“Mr. Grumpy owned a boat and his house was by a river. ”

“One day Mr. Grumpy went out in his boat. ‘May we come with you?’ said the children. ‘Yes,’ said Mr. Grumpy, ‘if you don’t squabble.’ ”

″ ‘Can you make room for me?’ said the calf. ‘Yes, if you don’t trample about.’ ”

“The pig mucked about. The dog teased the cat. The cat chased the rabbit. The rabbit hopped. The children squabbled. The boat tipped…and into the water they fell.”

″ ‘May I join you, Mr. Grumpy?’ said the goat. ‘Very well, but don’t kick.’ ”

“When I go I shall travel on a boat of the Booth Line and it will take four weeks to go across the Atlantic, and then when I get to Brazil I still have to travel a thousand miles along the river between trees that lean over the water, and there will be scarlet birds and sandbanks and creatures like big guinea pigs called capa.... cabybaras which you can tame.”

″‘I think you had better not go out in a boat, mademoiselle,’ Eugenio declared. Winterbourne wished to Heaven this pretty girl were not so familiar with her courier; but he said nothing. ‘I suppose you don’t think it’s proper!’ Daisy exclaimed. ‘Eugenio doesn’t think anything’s proper.‘”

“Some of the women cried at the sight of her, and I saw men, my father included, with tears in their eyes. It didn’t seem possible that only a few hours before I had been standing on her deck. I was no longer excited about the war; I had begun to understand that it meant death and destruction.”

“Vessels large may venture more, But little boats should keep near shore.”

“He wanted to be friends with his father and feel the same closeness there had been between his father and Jamie. Jamie would have been a big man. He had gone on the boat that last summer, and Mark had listened enviously as Jamie and his father discussed fishing and boating problems in man-to-man fashion.”

“Would there be room in the boat for me to ride to shore with you?” she begged. “I know it’s silly, but there is America so close to me for the first time in my life – I can’t bear not to set my foot upon it!” “What a child you are, Kit,” smiled Mrs. Eaton. “Sometimes ‘tis hard to believe you are sixteen.”

“The captain did not even glance in her direction. Kit was not used to being ignored, and her temper flared. When a thin whimper from the child was silenced by a vicious cuff, her anger boiled over. Without a second’s deliberation she acted. Kicking off her buckled shoes and dropping the woolen cloak, she plunged headlong over the side of the boat.”

“At the landing-stage waited a real boat, a canoe at least ten feet long.”

“Ping knew he would be the last, the very last if he crossed the bridge. Ping did not want to be spanked.”

“Ping hid behind the grasses, and as the dark came and the pale moon shone in the sky Ping watched the wise eyed boat slowly sail away down the Yangtze river.”

“But up marched Ping, up over the little bridge and SPANK came the spank on Ping’s back!”

“She was not as portly as a trout; kinder than a pike; what fish was she? ‘I shall call her the Minnow,’ said David softly, digging deeply with his paddle.”

“They pulled and they pulled and up came Ping and the Boy on to the house boat.”

“He wanted to prove quickly what he felt in his bones: that no one owned the boat, that no one had the right to claim it from him.”

“By day the little red lighthouse did not answer. It was quiet when the boats called. It was still.”

“The boats saw the light and were safe.”

“Now the boats on the river talked to the little red lighthouse as they passed. ‘Hoot, hoot, hoot! How are you?’ said the big steamer, with it’s deep, throaty whistle.”

“The Twins thought it must be grand to live on a boat like that, just going about from town to town, seeing new sights every day.”

“And while Mr. Jeremy sat disconsolately on the edge of his boat- sucking his sore fingers and peering down into the water- a much worse thing happened; a really frightful thing it would have been, if Mr. Jeremy had not been wearing a macintosh!”

“Mr. Jeremy shoved the boat out again a little way, and dropped the bait. There was a bite almost directly; the float gave a tremendous bobbit! ‘A minnow! a minnow! I have him by the nose!’ cried Mr. Jeremy Fisher, jerking up his rod. But what a horrible surprise! Instead of a smooth fat minnow, Mr. Jeremy landed little Jack Sharp the stickleback, covered with spines!”

“Mr. Jeremy put on a macintosh, and a pair of shiny goloshes; he took his rod and basket, and set off with enormous hops to the place where he kept his boat. The boat was round and green, and very like the other lily-leaves. It was tied to a water-plant in the middle of the pond. Mr. Jeremy took a reed pole, and pushed the boat out into the open water.”

“When it was fine he spent the day on the beach playing in and out of the boats, or talking to his friend the old boatman, who taught him how to make the special knots that sailors make and many other things about the sea and ships.”