Fleet Quotes
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We have a wretched motley crew, in the fleet; the marines the refuse of every regiment, and the seamen, few of them, ever wet with salt water.
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More Fleet Quotes
The drafts from the regiments at Ticonderoga are a miserable set; indeed the men on board the fleet, in general, are not equal to half their number of good men.
benedict arnold— Letter to General Gates (21 September 1776), in Battle of Valcour on Lake Champlain, October 11th, 1776 by Peter Sailly Palmer(1876, p. 5)
He could not even stand up to review his fleet when the ships were already at their fighting stations, but lay on his back and gazed up at the sky, never rising to show that he was alive until Marcus Agrippa had routed the enemy.
augustus— Marcus Antonius, taunting Augustus for his conduct during the Sicilian war against Sextus Pompey in 36 BC; in Suetonius, Divus Augustus, paragraph 16. Translation: Robert Graves, 1957.
We will rush ever on without fear; Let the goal be far, the flight be fleet! For we carry the Heavens with us, dear, While the Earth slips from our feet!
james thomson— Sunday at Hampstead, part X
He could not even stand up to review his fleet when the ships were already at their fighting stations, but lay on his back and gazed up at the sky, never rising to show that he was alive until Marcus Agrippa had routed the enemy.
— Marcus Antonius, taunting Augustus for his conduct during the Sicilian war against Sextus Pompey in 36 BC; in Suetonius, Divus Augustus, paragraph 16. Translation: Robert Graves, 1957.
Beauteous the fleet before the gale; Beauteous the multitudes in mail, Rank'd arms and crested heads: Beauteous the garden's umbrage mild, Walk, water, meditated wild, And all the bloomy beds.
Christopher Smart— 1763 A Song to David, stanza 78.
The past is the only dead thing that smells sweet, The only sweet thing that is not also fleet.
— 1916 'Early One Morning'.
Hold the fleet angel fast until he bless thee.
nathaniel cotton— To-morrow, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
How fleet is a glance of the mind!Compared with the speed of its flightThe tempest itself lags behind,And the swift-winged arrows of light.
william cowper— Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk.
Believe me, if all those endearing young charmsWhich I gaze on so fondly to-day,Were to change by to-morrow and fleet in my arms,Like fairy gifts fading away.Thou wouldst still be adored as this moment thou art,Let thy loveliness fade as it will,And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart,Would entwine itself verdantly still.
thomas moore— Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms, st. 1.
Bonaparte has often made his boast, that our fleet would be worn out by keeping the sea, that his was kept in order, and increasing, by staying in port; but he now finds, I fancy, if emperors hear truth, that his fleet suffers more in a night, than ours in one year; however, thank God, the Toulon fleet is got in order again, and I hear the troops embarked, and I hope they will come out to sea in fine weather.
horatio nelson— From a letter to Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, written while aboard HMS Victory and dated March 14, 1805. Quoted in full in Captain Edward Pelham Brenton (1824), The Naval History of Great Britain from the year 1783 to 1822, Vol III London: C. Rice, p. 406.
In spite of the fact that we have no such fleet as we should have, we have conquered for ourselves a place in the sun. It will now be my task to see to it that this place in the sun shall remain our undisputed possession, in order that the sun's rays may fall fruitfully upon our activity and trade in foreign parts, that our industry and agriculture may develop within the state and our sailing sports upon the water, for our future lies upon the water.
— Speech in Hamburg (18 June 1901)
— Variant: Germany must have her place in the sun. (is not of Wilhelm himself but of Bernhard von BülowAs quoted in Germanism from Within (1916) by Alexander Duncan Mclaren
Alas, by what rude fateOur lives, like ships at sea, an instant meet,Then part forever on their courses fleet.
edmund clarence stedman— Edmund Clarence Stedman, Blameless Prince, Stanza 51.
Sir Roger made several reflections on the greatness of the British Nation; as, that one Englishman could beat three Frenchmen; that we could never be in danger of Popery so long as we took care of our fleet; that the Thames was the noblest river in Europe...with many other honest prejudices which naturally cleave to the heart of a true Englishman.
joseph addison— No. 383 (20 May 1712).
When age chills the blood, when our pleasures are past For years fleet away with the wings of the dove The dearest remembrance will still be the last, Our sweetest memorial the first kiss of love.
lord byron— The First Kiss of Love, st. 7 (1806)
All in the Downs the fleet was moor'd.
john gay— Sweet William's Farewell to Black-eyed Susan, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
Ah that such sweet things should be fleet, Such fleet things sweet!
algernon charles swinburne— Félise.
Who has not felt how sadly sweet The dream of home, the dream of home, Steals o'er the heart, too soon to fleet, When far o'er sea or land we roam?
thomas moore— Thomas Moore, The Dream of Home, Stanza 1.
Alas, by what rude fate Our lives, like ships at sea, an instant meet, Then part forever on their courses fleet.
edmund clarence stedman— Edmund Clarence Stedman, Blameless Prince, Stanza 51.
The salvation of this country depends upon the discipline of the fleet; without discipline they would be a rabble, dangerous only to their friends, and harmless to the enemy.
— Per Cur., Johnstone v. Sutton (1786), 1 T. R. 549.
The deeds we do, the words we say, Into still air they seem to fleet; We count them ever past; But they shall last In the dread judgment they And we shall meet.
— John Keble, "Early Warnings," from Lyra Innocentium (1846).
His expedition against the Britanni was celebrated for its daring. For he was the first to launch a fleet upon the western ocean and to sail through the Atlantic sea carrying an army to wage war. The island was of incredible magnitude, and furnished much matter of dispute to multitudes of writers, some of whom averred that its name and story had been fabricated, since it never had existed and did not then exist and in his attempt to occupy it he carried the Roman supremacy beyond the confines of the inhabited world
— Plutarch, The Life of Julius Caesar
How fleet is a glance of the mind! Compared with the speed of its flight, The tempest itself lags behind, And the swift-winged arrows of light.
william cowper— Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk.
Lord Vader, the fleet has moved out of lightspeed and we're preparing to--
— Who: Kendal Ozzel
— Notes: Reporting to Darth Vader, who force-chokes him to death for coming out of hyperspace too close to Hoth, thereby giving the Rebels advance notice of their presence.
In fleet Street, in fleet Street, the People are so fleetThey barely touch the cobble-stones with their nimble feet!
Eleanor Farjeon— Fleet Street
Very few reporters in fleet Street can write on the game with as much observation, sense of scene and character, and knowledge of the things that technically and tactically matter.
margaret hughes— Neville Cardus, Foreword to All On A Summer's Day
The business of the English Commander-in-Chief being first to bring an Enemy's fleet to Battle, on the most advantageous terms to himself, (I mean that of laying his Ships close on board the Enemy, as expeditiously as possible;) and secondly, to continue them there, without separating, until the business is decided.
horatio nelson— Nicolas, Sir Nicholas Harris (ed.) The Dispatches and Letters of Lord Viscount Nelson, Sixth Volume. London: Henry Colburn. 1866, pg xi.
We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.
— Winston Churchill, speech in the House of Commons after successful evacuation of Allied troops at Dunkirk, France, June 4, 1940. Robert Rhodes James, ed., Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches, 1897–1963 (1974), vol. 6, p. 6231.
The man must have a rare recipe for melancholy, who can be dull in fleet Street.
Charles Lamb— Letter to Thomas Manning (February 15, 1802)
When I assumed command of the Pacific fleet in 31 December, 1941; our submarines were already operating against the enemy, the only units of the fleet that could come to grips with the Japanese for months to come. It was to the Submarine Force that I looked to carry the load until our great industrial activity could produce the weapons we so sorely needed to carry the war to the enemy. It is to the everlasting honor and glory of our submarine personnel that they never failed us in our days of peril.
chester w. nimitz— Foreword, in United States Submarine Operations in World War II. (1949) by Theodore Roscoe, p. v
