Water flows humbly to the lowest level.
Nothing is weaker than water,
Yet for overcoming what is hard and strong,
Nothing surpasses it. – Lao-Tzu

Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink.
Water, water everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
The very deep did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

There is nothing so desperately monotonous as the sea, and I no longer wonder at the cruelty of pirates. – James Russell Lowell