85+ BEAUTIFUL Ocean Quotes & Ocean Captions (with Pics)

Covering 71 percent of the beautiful earth’s surface, our oceans offer all of us out there who love an adventure, the chance to explore somewhere new and magical – and we hope these 89 beautiful Ocean Quotes + Ocean Captions can inspire you to do just that!

Despite the vast coverage of our oceans, only 5 percent of this watery underworlds have ever been explored yet are home to more life than anywhere else on the planet. It’s also important to remember that these beautiful and delicate ecosystems are in need of our help. In a world that is filled with pollution and waste, our oceans are the ones that are now suffering.

For centuries the ocean has inspired some of the greatest creatives that ever lived. Their origins unknown, it only makes them even more magical to us and if we could spend all day gazing at photos of the ocean, we quite easily would!

So, if like us you are in love with the ocean and love nothing more than a holiday by the sea, you are going to want to sit back and read our rundown of the top 89 Ocean quotes that will not only leave you feeling chilled out and inspired but can also help you with your meditation practice AND hopefully remind us all just how important our amazing oceans truly are.

Disclaimer: Almost all posts on this site contain Affiliate links, and this one about the 85+ most inspiring Ocean Quotes of all time is no different. This means that if you click on any of the links in this post (and make a purchase) I may receive a small commission at absolutely no cost to you. Each post is carefully crafted to (hopefully!) answer all your questions and recommendations are made where we believe they will improve your trip and help with your planning. As such we thank you in advance should you decide to click & buy. Read my full Disclosure here.

89 Beautiful Ocean Quotes + Ocean Captions to Inspire

1. “She loves the serene brutality of the ocean, loves the electric power she felt with each breath of wet, briny air.” – Holly Black 

2. “They say home is where the heart is. For most people, that consists of four walls and a welcome mat. But for me, it’s the ocean” – Unknown

3. “Each kiss of an ocean wave is passed along, as long as there is life on and in the seas.” – Anthony T. Hincks
(this is one of the most beautiful ocean sayings in the world)

4. “Ocean, n. A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man – who has no gills.” – Ambrose Bierce, The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary

5. “Ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time.” – H. P. Lovecraft

6. “Hark now hear the sailors cry, Smell the seas and feel the sky, let your soul and spirit fly” – Van Morrison

7. “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” – Ryunosuke Satoro

Inspirational Quotes about the Ocean

8. “If the ocean can calm itself, so can you. We are both salt water mixed with air.” – Nayyirah Waheed
(IMHO this is one of the most motivational quotes and inspirational quotes on the list)

9. “You only need to stand near the ocean to feel the power of the universe and a closeness to the one who created it.” – Susan Gale

10. “The ocean is a mighty harmonist.” – William Wordsworth
(one of my favorite short ocean quotes – it’s just so simple)

11. “While inner beauty stays permanent like an ocean. By all means, hold strong to your inner beauty.” – Edmond Mbiaka

12. “What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams.” – Werner Herzog

Long Ocean Quotes

13. “There was a magic about the sea. People were drawn to it. People wanted to love by it, swim in it, play in it, look at it. It was a living thing that was as unpredictable as a great stage actor: it could be calm and welcoming, opening its arms to embrace it’s audience one moment, but then could explode with its stormy tempers, flinging people around, wanting them out, attacking coastlines, breaking down islands.” – Cecelia Ahern

14. “The sea is emotion incarnate. It loves, hates, and weeps. It defies all attempts to capture it with words and rejects all shackles. No matter what you say about it, there is always that which you can’t.” – Christopher Paolini

15. “If we look at the ocean in a calm, there is something imposing in its aspect; stretched out in its sleeping tranquillity, but looking fearfully deep, and its silence seems like that of the lion when crouching for its prey.” – Jenny M Parker

16. “To me the sea is a continual miracle; the fishes that swim, the rocks, the motion of the waves, the ships with men in them. What stranger miracles are there?” – Walt Whitman
Couldn’t agree with you more Walt Whitman – the ocean is a miracle we should do everything we can to protect.

17. “I have been feeling very clearheaded lately and what I want to write about today is the sea. It contains so many colors. Silver at dawn, green at noon, dark blue in the evening. Sometimes it looks almost red. Or it will turn the color of old coins. Right now the shadows of clouds are dragging across it, and patches of sunlight are touching down everywhere. White strings of gulls drag over it like beads.

It is my favorite thing, I think, that I have ever seen. Sometimes I catch myself staring at it and forget my duties. It seems big enough to contain everything anyone could ever feel.” – Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

18. “For her the ocean was more than a dream, it was a place she needed to visit to find herself. And when she returned to the city, you could see the sun in her eyes, the wind in her hair, and taste in the infinite salt on her lips.” – Jose Chaves

19. “There’s nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you’ve been missing the whole point of the ocean. Staying on the surface all the time is like going to the circus and staring at the outside of the tent.” – Dave Barry

Life Quotes inspired by the Ocean

20. “You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” – Mahatma Gandhi

21. “Every time I stand before a beautiful beach, its waves seem to whisper to me: If you choose the simple things and find joy in nature’s simple treasures, life and living need not be so hard.” – Psyche Roxas Mendoza

22. “Those who live by the sea can hardly form a single thought of which the sea would not be part.” – Hermann Broch

23. “The ocean is everything I want to be. Beautiful, mysterious, wild, and free.” – Unknown

24. “The calming movement of the sea along with the restless ocean breeze gently caresses me creating a soothing trance which lulls me to a place of peace.” – M. L. Borges, By The Sea

25. “How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when it is clearly Ocean.” – Arthur C Clarke

26. Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.” – Sarah Kay
(Sarah Kay has given us one of the most popular quotes about the ocean and love)

27. “We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.” – John F Kennedy

28. “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” – Rumi
(this is one of the best sea quotes on the list!)

29. “The human desire to obtain more is a sieve that can never be filled with all the water from the world’s oceans.” – Will Bowen

30. “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) it’s always ourselves we find in the sea.” – e.e. cummings

31. “I have an immoderate passion for water; for the sea, though so vast, so restless, so beyond one’s comprehension; for rivers, beautiful, yet fugitive and elusive; but especially for marshes, teeming with all that mysterious life of the creatures that haunt them.” – Guy de Maupassant

32. “I couldn’t imagine living in a state that didn’t reach the ocean. It was a giant reset button. You could go to the edge of the land and see infinity and feel renewed.” – Avery Sawyer (this is one of my favorite ocean sayings)

33. “I love the ocean. I’ve always liked the blue, so tranquil and peaceful and gliding. And the fear of it.” – Siouxsie Sioux

Short Ocean Quotes (i.e. the Best Sea Quotes for Instagram)

34. “You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore” – Unknown

35. “Life is like the ocean, it goes up and down.” – Vanessa Paradis

36. “We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep“ – William James

37. “You will love the ocean. It makes you feel small, but not in a bad way.” – Lauren Myracle

38. “Waves are the voices of tides. Tides are life. They bring new food for shore creatures and take ships out to sea. They are the ocean’s pulse, and our own heartbeat.” – Tamora Pierce
(This sea caption appeals to surfers in particular)

39. “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” – Jacques Cousteau / Jacques Yves Cousteau

40. “The ocean made me salty.” – Unknown (one of the cute ocean quotes)

41. “Every time I slip into the ocean, it’s like going home.” – Sylvia Earle

42. ” I was happy anywhere I could see the ocean.” – Ai Yazawa

43. “The world’s finest wilderness lies beneath the waves” – Robert Wyland 
(and if that doesn’t make you want to go snorkeling or scuba diving, I don’t know what will!)

44. “By protecting our oceans, we are preserving them for the next generation to enjoy” – Unknown
(this is quite a sad sea quote when you think about it…)

45. “You’re not a wave, you’re part of the ocean.” – Mitch Albom

46. “Dance with the waves, move with the sea. set your soul free.” – Christie Ann Martine
(Dancing with the waves is something we all do, but Christie Ann Martine has captured the joy in doing so perfectly)

47. “A pool just isn’t the same as the ocean. It has no energy. No life.” – Linda Gerber

48. “The waves of the sea help me get back to me.” – Jill Davis

Famous Quotes about the Ocean

49. “And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.” – John F. Kennedy

50. “‎I have always been fascinated by the ocean, to dip a limb beneath its surface and know that I’m touching eternity, that it goes on forever until it begins here again.” – Lauren DeStefano

51. “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” – Mother Theresa (such words of wisdom)

52. “It is said by the Eldar that in water there lives yet the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance that is in this Earth; and many of the Children of Ilúvatar hearken still unsated to the voices of the Sea, and yet know not for what they listen.” – J. R. R. Tolkein
(Do you ever hear to the music of the ocean and the sounds of the sea when you are by the shore, but find you are never really conscious of it?!)

53. “Little drops of water, Little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land.
So the little moments, humble though they be, make the mighty ages of eternity.
So the little errors lead the soul away, from the paths of virtue far in sin to stray.
Little deeds of kindness, Little words of love, Help to make earth happy, Like the Heaven above.” – Terry Hogan

54. “Even castles made from sand fall to the ocean.” – Jimi Hendrix
(I think this is one of the most famous quotes in the list!)

55. “The ocean makes me feel really small and it makes me put my whole life into perspective… it humbles you and makes you feel almost like you’ve been baptized. I feel born again when I get out of the ocean.” – Beyoncé Knowles
(this ocean caption helps you find the joy in natures simple functions)
 
56. “The ocean is a central image. It is the symbolism of a great journey.” – Enya

57. “It was one of those days when the ocean takes on all the colors of the rainbow and smiles up from the coral reef in glowing hues!” – Matt Warshaw, The History of Surfing

58. “My mother told me I had a chameleon soul. No moral compass pointing due north, no fixed personality. Just an inner indecisiveness that was as wide and as wavering as the ocean.” – Lana Del Rey
(one of the great sea quotes!)

59. “All hearts float in their own deep oceans of no light, wetblack and glimmering, their four mouths gulping like fish. Hearts are said to pound: this is to be expected, the heart’s regular struggle against being drowned.” – Margaret Attwood

60. “There’s nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you’ve been missing the whole point of the ocean. Staying on the surface all the time is like going to the circus and staring at the outside of the tent.” – Dave Barry

61. “As endless as the ocean, as timeless as the tides” – words of wisdom from an Unknown Author
 
62. “Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean.” – Christopher Reeve
(a great quotes about the ocean and healing)

Quotes about Love & the Ocean

63. “The person you think of when you stand in front of the ocean. That’s the person you’re in love with.” – Colleen Michele

64. “A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets.” – Titanic (this one is often my quote of the day!) 

65. “Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.” – Sarah Kay

66. “Together we can face any challenges as deep as the ocean and as high as the sky.” – Sonia Gandhi

67. “Sometimes in the waves of change we find our true direction” – Unknown (this sea quote could be considered a bit of a sad love quotes don’t you think?!)

68. “Summer is calling me with the music of an ocean breeze. I must go dance with the waves of love.” – Debasish Mridha

69. “The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.” – Kate Chopin
(This is one of my favorite sea captions)

Ocean Inspired Beach Quotes (perfect for IG captions!)

70. “I could never stay long enough on the shore; the tang of the untainted, fresh, and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought.” – Helen Keller

71. “The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach”. – Henry Beston

72. “The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach – waiting for a gift from the sea.” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh

73. “At the beach, life is different. Time doesn’t move hour to hour but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides, and follow the sun.” – Anonymous (I think this sums up the perfect beach day and is a great quote for beach lovers!)

74. “My life is like a stroll upon the beach, as near to the ocean’s edge as I can go” – Henry David Thoreau

75. “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” – Mother Teresa

76. “The shore is an ancient world, for as long as there has been an earth and sea there has been this place of the meeting of land and water. Yet it is a world that keeps alive the sense of continuing creation and of the relentless drive of life.” – Rachel Carson

77. “If you choose the simple things and find joy in nature’s simple treasures, life and living need not be so hard.” – Psyche Roxas-Mendoza

78. “Treasures of the sea can be found at the beach. Let go and discover!” – Catherine Pulsifer

79. “Why do we love the sea? It is because it has some potent power to make us think things we like to think.“– Robert Henri

80. “Our life is but a grain of sand in the indifferent ocean of infinity.” – Sergei Dovlatov, The Suitcase

Ocean & Beach Quotes about Faith, Spirituality and Religion

81. “Looking out over the ocean you can see reflections of God” – Catherine Pulsifer

82. “In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence.” – Kahlil Gibran Jr.

83. “The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.” – Robert Wyland

84. “If peace flows like a river, may it flow into the ocean of our souls.” – J Autherine

85. “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” – Mother Theresa

86. “If there’s a heaven for me, I’m sure it has a beach attached” – Jimmy Buffett
(p.s. did you know that ‘Margaritaville’ by Jimmy Buffet is one of my favorite road trip songs?!)

87. “The sea is a god, an unseeing, unhearing deity that does not even know we exist. We mean less than a grain of sand on an elephant’s back, and if the sea wants us, it will take us. That’s just the way it is. The sea knows no limits, makes no concessions. It has given us everything and it can take everything away from us. To other gods we send our prayer: Protect us from the sea.” – John Ajvide Lindqvist

88. “Surfing has been one of my passions for most of my life and that’s why I knew I would get back on the board after I lost my arm. God gave me my love for the ocean & I honor him when I delight in that passion!” – Bethany Hamilton

89. “Be alone with the sea for it is there you will find answers to questions you didn’t realize exist.” – Khang Kijarro Nguyen

If the ocean is where you are heading to on your travel adventures this year, we hope our collection of ocean quotes has inspired you even more. To not only admire and respect but also ignite a desire to protect this unique natural world for generations to come.

Be sure to let us know in the comments below what ocean you are headed to, whether it’s surfing in the pacific ocean or diving in the Indian ocean. We want to know the reasons why you are in love with the ocean just like us and we would love to know what your quote of the day is! 

And if you’d like to see more travel quotes and sayings or word play posts just like this one (maybe smile quotes, addiction quotes, nature quotes or just general life quotes and instagram captions?) whatever you think could help you get through something – just let us know and we will try and whip something up for you!

Oh and if you liked this post, please share on social media: tweet, pin, flipboard or Facebook – I’d really appreciate it!

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