Oceanic Quotes

“All shadows of clouds the sun cannot hide
like the moon cannot stop oceanic tide;
but a hidden star can still be smiling
at night's black spell on darkness, beguiling”
― Munia Khan

“I wish to spend a lifetime near a lighthouse where loneliness will be the glimmer of luminous prancing upon ocean waves… rising and falling only for my breathing.”
― Munia Khan

“In school I ended up writing three different papers on "The Castaway" section of Moby-Dick, the chapter where the cabin boy Pip falls overboard and is driven mad by the empty immensity of what he finds himself floating in. And when I teach school now I always teach Crane's horrific "The Open Boat," and get all bent out of shape when the kids find the story dull or jaunty-adventurish: I want them to feel the same marrow-level dread of the oceanic I've always felt, the intuition of the sea as primordial nada, bottomless, depths inhabited by cackling tooth-studded things rising toward you at the rate a feather falls.”
― David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments

“Wild waves rise and fall when they arrive
And that’s what makes the calm sea alive”
― Munia Khan

“Take my hand
and…
feel the sand
beneath your aimless feet
towards the sparkling waves”
― Munia Khan

“Oceanic farness treasures tomorrow
Mingled tears lost in the sea of sorrow
Our immortal love will lead us a way
When pale days remain cloudy and grey”
― Munia Khan

“Shearwater sighed, like a whale in the night.”
― Aldous Huxley, Antic Hay

“He loved the sea for deep-seated reasons: the hardworking artist's need for repose, the desire to take shelter from the demanding diversity of phenomena in the bosom of boundless simplicity, a propensity—proscribed and diametrically opposed to his mission in life and for that very reason seductive—a propensity for the unarticulated, the immoderate, the eternal, for nothingness. To repose in perfection is the desire of all those who strive for excellence, and is not nothingness a form of perfection?”
― Thomas Mann, Death in Venice

“When the tidal waves wildly behaving
My bare feet on the shore busy saving
The calm warmth leaking out of the sand
To let my heart feel peacefully tanned!”
― Munia Khan

“Every aspect of the sea holds profound metaphorical
power. The outer seascape provides so many corollaries for human
psychology in general, and women’s psychology in particular. This
is the reason it has haunted the myths and legends – the psychology
before psychology – of so many cultures. And it is why water is present in most spiritual rituals. The sea speaks to the soul. Our ancestors
knew that beneath the depths lay much wisdom. They knew that the
way to our own depths was through the depths of the ocean.”
― Lucy H. Pearce, She of the Sea

“Flight of my mind rises beneath the seagull’s wings …then ocean is my motherland I feel.”
― Munia Khan

“Into the sea I’d love to sink
When with both eyes a shark can blink
Is he a brave fish or a marine man?
Through those closed eyelids my heart will he scan?”
― Munia Khan

“Sharks are the lions of the sea.They glamorize the oceanic glory.”
― Munia Khan

“The amazing face of the motherly mammal of a seal near the oceanic shore has more honesty to offer to our world than the unreliable feature of a two-faced politician.”
― Munia Khan

“East Coast oysters are brinier, more mineral. West Coasts are plumper, creamier, sweeter. They're even physically different. One has a flat cup, the other tends to be deeper.”
― Stephanie Danler, Sweetbitter

“She feels good. That, and the scent of his cologne works like magic on her. Something about him reminds her of the ocean. A little cold and dark sometimes, but with moments of shining brilliance, hidden treasures and vibrant life hidden somewhere deep below.
She wants to dive straight in.”
― Katrina Kwan, Knives, Seasoning, & A Dash of Love

“A bell chimes as I open the door. It's even more magical inside than out. Spools of ribbon hang from the walls like the atelier of a fairy queen. Tiny jasmine buds lace through the curls of a crystal chandelier. Dresses fill the curves of antique wardrobes, as if this were a princess's closet and not a store.
A group of girls squeal as they browse the gowns. They've dressed almost otherworldly, so unlike the yoga pants and sweatshirts I'm used to in San Francisco. Instead, they're ornamented in seafoam trousers made of silk, lace corsets with ruffles across the bustier, satin slips with rose embroidery. They wear seashells in their hair and around their necks--- an iridescent mollusk held together by a string of pearls, an abalone claw clip that flashes different colors beneath the light, pukas threaded between pastel sea glass.”
― Kiana Krystle, Dance of the Starlit Sea