O pilot! 'tis a fearful night,
There's danger on the deep. [ Thomas Haynes Bayly, The Pilot ]
The careful pilot of my proper woe. [ Byron, Epistle to Augusta ]
In a calm sea, every man is a pilot. [ Proverb ]
The river knows the way to the sea:
Without a pilot it runs and falls.
Blessing all lands with its charity. [ Emerson ]
Beauty is the pilot of the young soul. [ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
Without an helm or pilot her to sway;
Full sad and dreadful is that ship's event,
So is the man that wants intendiment. [ Spenser ]
A pilot's part in calms cannot be spy'd,
In dangerous times true worth is only tried. [ Stirling — Doomes-day. The Fifth Houre ]
Reason the hoary dotard's dull directress,
That loses all, because she hazards nothing;
Reason! the timorous pilot, that, to shun
The rocks of life, forever flies the port. [ Dr. Johnson ]
What though the mast be now blown overboard,
The cable broke, the holding anchor lost,
And half our sailors swallow'd in the flood?
Yet lives our pilot still. [ Shakespeare,Henry VI ]
Chance will not do the work -
Chance sends the breeze;
But if the pilot slumber at the helm.
The very wind that wafts us towards the port
May dash us on the shelves.
The steersman's part is vigilance.
Blow it or rough or smooth. [ Sir Walter Scott ]
Here's to the pilot that weathered the storm. [ Canning ]
He was a man
Versed in the world as pilot in his compass;
The needle pointed ever to that interest
Which was his loadstar; and he spread his sails
With vantage to the gale of others' passions. [ Ben Jonson ]
The paleness of the pilot is a sign of a storm. [ Proverb ]
For though from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar. [ Tennyson ]
A daring pilot in extremity;
Pleased with the danger, when the waves went high
He sought the storms; but, for a calm unfit,
Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit.
Great wits are sure to madness near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide; [ Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel ]
A bad pilot is like a blind man leading the blind. [ Marcus Clarke ]
The doctor is not unfrequently death's pilot-fish. [ G. D. Prentice ]
A great pilot can sail even when his canvas is rent.
A pilot is not chosen for his riches, but his knowledge. [ Proverb ]
In every ship there must be a seeing pilot, not a mere hearing one. [ Carlyle ]
A good pilot and a fair wind are the requisites for a prosperous voyage. [ Demophilus ]
In the dark a glimmering light is often sufficient for the pilot to find the polar star and to fix his course. [ Metastasio, Achille ]
When Nature fills the sails, the vessel goes smoothly on; and when judgment is the pilot, the insurance need not be high. [ Sir T. Browne ]
The philosopher is Nature's pilot. And there you have our difference: to be in hell is to drift: to be in heaven is to steer. [ Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman ]
An unstable pilot steers a leaking ship, and the blind is leading the blind straight to the pit. The ruler is like the ruled.
The passions act as winds to propel our vessel, our reason is the pilot that steers her; without the winds she would not move, without the pilot she would be lost. [ F. Schultz ]
Life is a sea; the soul the threatened ship; sin, Satan, and hell the dangers to be met; and Christ the great pilot, who will bring the soul into the heavenly harbor. [ J. Foster ]
The good pilot knows the whereabouts of every sunken rock in the harbor; how much of joy there would be in the world if all men knew the sunken rocks in the harbor of life. [ Catherine A. Atmould ]
In the true mythology, Love is an immortal child, and Beauty leads him as a guide; nor can we express a deeper sense than when we say, Beauty is the pilot of the young soul. [ Emerson ]
The pilot who is always dreading a rock or a tempest must not complain if he remain a poor fisherman. We must at times trust something to fortune, for fortune has often some share in what happens. [ Metastasio ]
As the cautious pilot steers the ship clear of the breakers, and brings the vessel safe to port, so should we steer our life-ship clear of the rocks and shoals of sin to the port of everlasting life. [ James Ellis ]
When the wandering demon of Drunkenness finds a ship adrift - no steady wind in its sails, no thoughtful pilot directing its course - he steps on board, takes the helm and steers straight for the maelstrom. [ Holmes ]
We are never without a pilot. When we know not how to steer, and dare not hoist a sail, we can drift. The current knows the way, though we do not. The ship of heaven guides itself, and will not accept a wooden rudder. [ Emerson ]
Hath fortune dealt thee ill cards? let wisdom make thee a good gamester. In a fair gale, every fool may sail, but wise behavior in a storm commends the wisdom of a pilot; to bear adversity with an equal mind is both the sign and glory of a brave spirit. [ Quarles ]
Granted the ship comes into harbour with shrouds and tackle damaged; the pilot is blameworthy; he has not been all-wise and all-powerful; but to know how blameworthy, tell us first whether his voyage has been round the globe or only to Ramsgate and the Isle of Dogs. [ Carlyle ]
A phlegmatic insensibility is as different from patience as a pool from a harbor; into the one, indolence naturally sinks us; but if we arrive at the other, it is by encountering many an adverse wind and rough wave, with a more skillful pilot at the helm than self, and a company under better command than the passions. [ L. W. Dilwyn ]
If thy desire to raise thy fortunes encourage thy delights to the casts of fortune, be wise betimes, lest thou repent too late; what thou gettest, thou gainest by abused providence; what thou losest, thou losest by abused patience; what thou winnest is prodigally spent; what thou losest is prodigally lost; it is an evil trade that prodigality drives; and a bad voyage where the pilot is blind. [ Quarles ]