Navy Quotes, Quotations, and Sayings

17 Navy Quotes
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“Britain's best bulwarks are her wooden walls.”
Thomas Augustine Arne Quotes
Source: Britain's Best Bulwarks
“Our ships were British oak, And hearts of oak our men.”
Samuel James Arnold Quotes
Source: Death of Nelson
“The royal navy of England has ever been its greatest defence and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength; the floating bulwark of the island.”
Sir William Blackstone Quotes
Source: Commentaries (vol. I, bk. I, ch. XIII)
“Cooped in their winged sea-girt citadel.”
Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron) Quotes
Source: Childe Harold (canto II, st. 28)
“Right--that will do for the marines.”
Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron) Quotes
Source: The Island (II, XXI)
“The wooden walls are the best walls of this kingdom.”
Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry Quotes
Source: Speech to the Judges, given in Gardiner's "History of England", col. III, p.79
“Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!”
Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry Quotes
Source: Speech to the Judges, given in Gardiner's "History of England", col. III, p.79
“Hearts of oak are are ships, Hearts of oak are our men.”
David Garrick Quotes
Source: Hearts of Oak, another version
“Hearts of oak are our ships, Gallant tars are our men.”
David Garrick Quotes
Source: Hearts of Oak
“All in the Downs are fleet was moor'd.”
John Gay Quotes
Source: Sweet William's Farewell to Black-Eyed Susan
“Now landsmen all, whoever you may be, If you want to rise to the top of the tree, If your soul isn't fettered to an office stool, Be careful to be guided by this golden rule-- Stick close to your desks and never go to sea, And you all may be Rulers of the Queen's Navee.”
William S. Gilbert Quotes
Source: H.M.S. Pinafore
“Scarce one tall frigate walks the sea Or skirts the safer shores Of all that bore to victory Our stout old Commodores.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Quotes
Source: at a dinner given to Admiral Farragut
“The credite of the Realme, by defending the same with Wodden Walles, as Themistocles called the Ship of Athens.”
Jan Hugh van Linschoten Quotes
Source: London (preface to English translation)
“Lysander when handing over the command of the fleet to Callicratidas, the Spartan, said to him, "I deliver you a fleet that is mistress of the seas."”
Lysander Quotes
Source: see Plutarch's "Life of Lysander"
“There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seamen.”
Thomas Babington Macaulay Quotes
Source: History of England (vol. I, ch. III, pt. XXXII)
“Now the sunset breezes shiver, And she's fading down the river, But in England's song forever She's the Fighting Temeraire.”
Henry J. Newboldt Quotes
Source: The Fighting Temeraire
“Tell that to the Marines--the sailors won't believe it.”
Old Saying Quotes
Source: quoted by Scott in "Redgauntlet", ch. XIII