We live in the flicker — may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling! But darkness was here yesterday. - Joseph Conrad

One wonders that there can be found a man courageous enough to occupy the post. It is a matter of meditation. Having given it a few minutes I come to the conclusion in the serenity of my heart and the peace of my conscience that he must be either an extreme megalomaniac or an utterly unconscious being.

In order to move others deeply we must deliberately allow ourselves to be carried away beyond the bounds of our normal sensibility

...for there is nothing mysterious to a seaman unless it be the sea itself, which is the mistress of his existence...