The wonder of the plunder is way down under

To seek in the brine what is promised in heaven -- anyone with sense can plainly see the madness of it.

-- Vitae Sanctorum II, 293

Ah how lovely, how lovely,
truth, even if it is not real, how lovely!

-- Juan Ramon Jimenez, from "Diaria de Poeta y Mar," transl. James Wright


You must have plenty of sea-room to tell the truth in.

— Herman Melville

... Till noon we quietly sailed on,
Yet never a breeze did breathe;
Slowly and smoothly went the ship,
Moved onward from beneath.
Under the keel nine fathom deep,
From the land of mist and snow,
The spirit slid: and it was he
That made the ship go.

-- Coleridge, “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” 373-80

I am under God in his office, God under me in mine.

-- Paracelsus