Bernard Moitessier > Quotes

“There are two terrible things for a man: not to have fulfilled his dream, and to have fulfilled it.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“When a great adventure is launched with a powerful thrust, fatigue in the muscles and doubts in the mind are swept away by a fullness that moves life along like a breath from the depths of the soul.”
― Bernard Moitessier, Tamata and the Alliance

“its normal pace, even with the threat of a gale. How long will it last, this peace I have found at sea? It is all of life that I contemplate—sun, clouds, time that passes and abides. Occasionally it is also that other world, foreign now, that I left centuries ago. The modern, artificial world where man has been turned into a money-making machine to satisfy false needs, false joys.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“One thing at a time, as in the days when I was building Joshua. If I had wanted to build all the boat at once, the enormity of the task would have crushed me. I had to put all I had into the hull alone, without thinking about the rest. It would follow . . . with the help of the gods. Sailing non-stop around the world is the same. I do not think anyone has the means of pulling it off—at the start.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“I can only give them my first log, with birds, sea, daily sights and little everyday problems. My real log is written in the sea and sky; it can’t be photographed and given to others. It has gradually come to life out of all that has surrounded us for months: the sounds of water on the hull, the sounds of wind gliding on the sails, the silences full of secret things between my boat and me, like the times I spent as a child listening to the forest talk. 1”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“On ne demande pas à une mouette apprivoisée pourquoi elle éprouve le besoin de disparaître de temps en temps vers la pleine mer. Elle y va, c’est tout, et c’est aussi simple qu’un rayon de soleil, aussi normal que le bleu du ciel.”
― Bernard Moitessier, Longue route (ne) (La): SEUL ENTRE MERS ET CIELS

“I hate storms, but calms undermine my spirits.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“An hour later my porpoises are back. Two of them start spinning in the air like corkscrews. I rush to get the camera, stowed in its locker—too late; they are leaving already. I am as disgusted as if I had dropped an anchor without shackling it to its chain. After missing the terrific shot of the barracuda catching the flying fish in mid-air, I had sworn to leave the Beaulieu in the cockpit during fair weather, all set to go, with a cloth to protect it from the sun. But that is not enough. I am starting to realize that I too need to be protected from the camera. In the beginning, I thought that you just set the lens and released the shutter. It is not like that at all. You have to give the camera something more. And now it is trying to suck my blood. It would be easy to stuff the camera in a waterproof tank and forget it exists, but it is too late—and in any case I am not sorry.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“A sailor’s joys are as simple as a child’s.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way: Sheridan House Maritime Classic

“I spend my time reading, sleeping, eating. The good, quiet life, with nothing to do. And little by little the water tank fills up.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“If I do have to sight land, I like it to be from as far off as possible.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way: Sheridan House Maritime Classic

“I heartily recommend Alan Watts’ little book Instant Weather Forecasting, which taught me how to predict weather changes in minutes.”
― Bernard Moitessier, A Sea Vagabond's World: Boats and Sails, Distant Shores, Islands and Lagoons

“How long will it last, this peace I have found at sea? It is all of life that I contemplate—sun, clouds, time that passes and abides.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way: Sheridan House Maritime Classic

“(...) Si un marchand pouvait éteindre les étoiles pour que ses panneaux publicitaires se voient mieux dans la nuit, peut-être le ferait-il.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“People often imagine that sailors are a breed of supermen; that we almost never sleep, spend all our time handling sails, never get a hot meal. If they only knew!”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“Beaucoup de gens croient que la pelleteuse et la bétonneuse ne pensent pas. ces gens se trompent: elles pensent.
Elles pensent que si elles ne travaillent pas, elles ne gagneraient pas d'Argent, et qu'alors leurs esclaves ne pourraient plus acheter l'huile et l'essence sont elles ont besoin pour vivre et continuer à penser aux choses sérieuses”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“L’unica differenza tra “creazione” e “distruzione” è un semplice fiammifero. E siete voi a tenere in mano il fiammifero, e la scelta.”
― Bernard Moitessier, Tamata e l'alleanza by Bernard Moitessier

“At times, he heard the ‘call’ with every fibre of his being. For some time, I have been hearing it too. And that, perhaps, is the long way.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“L’ attuale Vietnam era diviso in tre Paesi: Tonchino a Nord, Annamaria al centro e Cocincina a Sud. Gli abitanti si chiamavano annamiti.”
― Bernard Moitessier, Tamata e l'alleanza by Bernard Moitessier

“The days go by, never monotonous. Even when they appear exactly alike they are never quite the same. That is what gives life at sea its special dimension, made up of contemplation and very simple contrasts. Sea, winds, calms, sun clouds, porpoises. Peace, and the joy of being alive in harmony.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“concentrating on a magnetized needle prevents one from participating in the real universe, seen and unseen, where a sailboat moves.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“L’ attuale Vietnam era diviso in tre Paesi: Tonchino a Nord, Annam al centro e Cocincina a Sud. Gli abitanti si chiamavano annamiti”
― Bernard Moitessier, Tamata e l'alleanza by Bernard Moitessier

“When Henry and I had had to work out a really sticky problem together, neither of us was allowed to mention it. No bursting out with ‘Say, I’ve got an idea! What do you think of this? . . .’ It was not allowed, because the thing had not matured enough, and putting forth an idea that was not worked out in detail wasted the other’s time and kept him from letting it ‘ripen’.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“Quanto a me, sono fortunato di stare qui. Le grandi compagnie evitano fin che possono di assumere i giovani francesi d'Indocina. Veniamo considerati (forse con un poco d'invidia…) alla stregua di «locali», dei furbetti che non hanno mai conosciuto i rigori della Francia, mai visto la neve né sentito freddo, tutti più o meno figli di papà, abituati alla vita facile delle colonie, arciviziati dai domestici, evidentemente incapaci di rifarsi il letto. Ma dato che le comunicazioni marittime con la Francia sono interrotte dall’inizio della guerra, le grandi Compagnie sono obbligate ad assumerci sul posto. E poi il mio letto è una stuoia, e non ho bisogno di nessuno per arrotolarla al mattino.”
― Bernard Moitessier, Tamata e l'alleanza by Bernard Moitessier

“Joshua drives towards the Horn under the light of the stars and the somewhat distant tenderness of the moon. Pearls run off the staysail; you want to hold them in your hand, they are real precious stones that live only in the eyes. The wake spins out very far behind up the slopes of the seas like a tongue of fire and the close-reefed sails stand out against the clear sky, with the moon making the sea on the quarter glisten. White reflection of the southern ice. Broad greenish patches of foam on the water. Pointed tooth-like seas masking the horizon, dull rumbling of the bow struggling and playing with the sea.

The entire sea is white and the sky as well. I no longer know how far I have got, except that we long ago left the borders of too much behind.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“. . . but leaving from Plymouth and returning to Plymouth now seems like leaving from”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way: Sheridan House Maritime Classic

“Grazie al cielo, la terra in Polinesia non è divisibile tra gli eredi. Venti o trenta persone sono così proprietarie dello stesso terreno, grande o piccolo che sia. Per venderne la più piccola parcella, occorre che tutti siano d’accordo, firmino davanti a un notaio. Questa legge tutela i polinesiani dal cuore d’oro, che alzano facilmente il gomito con una bottiglia di rhum. Possono perdere tutto ciò che vogliono, ma non la loro terra.”
― Bernard Moitessier, Tamata and the Alliance

“Je prends le globe du Damien et regarde longuement l’immense boucle tracée depuis le départ. Plymouth si près, dix mille milles à peine vers le nord… mais partir de Plymouth pour rentrer à Plymouth, c’est devenu au fil du temps comme partir de nulle part pour aller nulle part. C’est formidable, ce petit globe que je tiens dans mes mains !

Et nous sommes seuls, mon bateau et moi. Seuls avec la mer immense pour nous tout seuls.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way

“E non solo vale la pena di provare fino in fondo, ma è anche necessario. Se parole come «generosità» e «libertà» non esistono nel loro vocabolario, vuol dire che questi concetti non sono ancora nati nello spirito dell’Asia. Ma c’è voluto tempo prima di manifestarsi in Europa, quegli stessi concetti non esistevano nemmeno fra noi occidentali. C’è voluto tempo perché sfiorassero le nostre coscienze, e poi crescessero e vivessero nelle nostre azioni.”
― Bernard Moitessier, Tamata e l'alleanza by Bernard Moitessier

“I felt such a need to rediscover the wind of the high sea, nothing else counted at that moment, neither earth nor men. All Joshua and I wanted was to be left alone with ourselves. Any other thing did not exist, had never existed. You do not ask a tame seagull why it needs to disappear from time to time toward the open sea. It goes, that’s all, and it is as simple as a ray of sunshine, as normal as the blue of the sky.”
― Bernard Moitessier, The Long Way