Every potter cracks up his own vessel. [ French Proverb ]

The greatest vessel hath but its measure. [ Proverb ]

The empty vessel makes the greatest sound. [ William Shakespeare ]

We must not stint
Our necessary actions, in the fear
To cope malicious censurers; which ever,
As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow
That is new trimmed, but benefit no further
Than vainly longing. [ William Shakespeare, Henry VIII ]

Thou hast a grim appearance, and thy face
Bears a command in it; though thy tackle's torn,
Thou showest a noble vessel. [ William Shakespeare ]

Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows,
While proudly rising over the azure realm,
In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes,
Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm. [ Gray ]

Covetousness is always filling a bottomless vessel. [ Proverb ]

No matter what the vessel is so the wine in it be good. [ Proverb ]

Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, and mankind the vessel. [ Hare ]

The same wind that carries one vessel into port may blow another off shore. [ C. N. Bovee ]

The purer the golden vessel the more readily is it bent; the higher worth of women is sooner lost than that of men. [ Jean Paul ]

The purer the golden vessel, the more readily is it bent; the higher worth of woman is sooner lost than that of man. [ Richter ]

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 ]

In navigation, it is the business of the master of a vessel to see that no wind be lost, misemployed, or taken from the ship. [ Lord Bacon ]

Two pots stood by a river, one of brass, the other of clay; the water carried them away; the earthen vessel kept aloof from the other. [ L'Estrange ]

Whoever sinks his vessel by overloading it, though it be with gold, and silver, and precious stones, will give his owner but an ill account of his voyage. [ Locke ]

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 ]

Truth may work mightily though in the hand of the sorriest instrument; in the case of the beautiful alone the casket constitutes the jewel (the vessel makes the content). [ Friedrich Schiller ]

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 ]

It is the passions which do and undo everything; if reason ruled, nothing would get on. It is said that pilots fear beyond everything those halcyon seas where the vessel obeys not the helm, and that they prefer wind at the risk of storms. [ Fontenelle ]

When all moves equally (says Pascal), nothing seems to move, as in a vessel under sail; and when all run by common consent into vice, none appear to do so. He that stops first, views as from a fixed point the horrible extravagance that transports the rest. [ Colton ]

If the man be really the weaker vessel, and the rule is necessarily in the Wife's hands, how is it then to be? To tell the truth, I believe that the really loving, good wife never finds it out. She keeps the glamor of love and loyalty between herself and her husband, and so infuses herself into him that the weakness never becomes apparent either to her or to him or to most lookers-on. [ Charlotte M. Yonge ]