Quotes & Sayings About Captains

Have the Minister's soldiers been on the march?" "Probably. Given that they're soldiers, and marching is what soldiers do, if only to impress their captains. — Edward W. Robertson

All revered spiritual leaders, political leaders, and diplomats, captains of industry, intellectuals, and winning generals exhibit genuine humility that empowers them to act with integrity and courage under the most distressing circumstances. — Kilroy J. Oldster

I do not dwell on dreams I know how soon a dream becomes an expectation How can I have expectations? Look at me, No, Captain, Look at me, Look at me! — Stephen Sondheim

Black is a color of power and strength, and to see all those players, with the captains linking their arms in front - it's a powerful picture. — Hayden Fry

Had I guns (as I had goods) to work my Christian harm.

I had run him up from the quarter deck to trade with his own yard-arm;

I had nailed his ears to my capstan-head, and ripped them off with a saw,

And soused them in the bilgewater, and served them to him raw;

I had flung him blind in a rudderless boat to rot in the rocking dark,

I had towed him aft of his own craft, a bait for his brother shark;

I had lapped him round with cocoa husk, and drenched him with the oil,

And lashed him fast to his own mast to blaze above my spoil;

I had stripped his hide for my hammock-side, and tasseled his beard in the mesh,

And spitted his crew on the live bamboo that grows through the gangrened flesh. — Rudyard Kipling

The captains of industry do not keep on working for the sake of making money, but for the love of completing a job successfully. — Charles M. Schwab

It's up to the captain. I certainly feel my golf is worthy of playing in the Ryder Cup. But I'm not sure I'm on the radar screen of Paul McGinley. — Bernhard Langer

Florida sea captains might place a pineapple at the front door of their house to let everyone know that they had returned from a sea voyage and that the home was open to visitors. Many — James Kaserman

Now with the squadrons marshaled, captains leading each,
the Trojans came with cries and the din of war like wildfowl
when the long hoarse cries of cranes sweep on against the sky
and the great formations flee from winter's grim ungodly storms,
flying in force. shrieking south to the Ocean gulfs, speeding
blood and death to the Pygmy warriors, laonching at daybreak
savage battle down upon their heads. But Achaea's armies
came on strong in silence, breathing combat-fury,
hearts ablaze to defend each other to the death. — Fagles Robert

The death of a man is like the fall of a mighty nation That had valiant armies, captains, and prophets, And wealthy ports and ships all over the seas. — Czeslaw Milosz

To my crew: Please be reasonable and do it my way.
The Captain — Rusty Mills

I met [Shatner] on the set of Star Trek V, and he was horrible to me. He was cruel, and dismissive, and treated me the way I understand he treats pretty much everyone who tells him how much they loved him as Captain Kirk. — Wil Wheaton

The generals commanded the colonels and the colonels commanded the majors and the majors commanded the captains and the captains commanded the private, who marched with an air of proud importance because it required so many officers to give him his orders. — L. Frank Baum

Maybe they made me captain because I've been here so long. But if I'm supposed to lead by example, then I'll be a terrible captain. — Thurman Munson

Don't be afraid of the storms; be afraid of the ship and the captain! Forget about the outside factors, what matters is the internal power! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

Acting on television is like being asked by the captain to entertain the passengers while the ship goes down. — Peter Ustinov

There is no room for pride in any man. There is no room for unkindness. There is no room for wit at the expense of others. All men are born the same, and equal. As you saw to-day, so come the Captains and the Kings and the Tinkers and the Tailors. — Richard Llewellyn

And also celebrate the Skill of the Scythians in that Art, who sent once to Darius King of Persia an Embassador that made him a present of a Bird, a Frog, a Mouse, and five Arrows, without speaking one word; and being ask'd what those Presents meant, and if he had Commission to say any thing, answer'd that he had not; Which puzzl'd and gravell'd Darius very much; till Gobrias, one of the seven Captains that had kil'd the Magi explain'd it, saying to Darius, By these Gifts and Offerings the Scythians silently tell you, that except the Persians like Birds fly up to Heaven, like Mice hide themselves near the Centre of the Earth, or like Frogs dive to the very bottom of Ponds and Lakes, they shall be destroyed by the Power and Arrows of the Scythians. — Francois Rabelais

When they had dismounted, he indulged himself in a shudder of his whole body. "That is more than I undertake to do again!' --this to the admiral, in reproachful tones. "Those two monstrously large beasts! Going right up to them like that and dangling their captains in front of them just as if to say, look what I have got, ha ha! I am all astonishment they did not leap upon me at once. I hope they did not get a clear look at me. If they ever saw me again I am sure they would not let it pass."

"I beg you not to repine upon it," Laurence said. "Temeraire understands well that orders must be obeyed, and will not hold it against you; he knows it was not in your power to deliver us to him."

"Well, but it was," Souci said, not conciliated, and Granby said nothing reassuring at all. Iskierka allow of assurances of her behavior, good, evil, or otherwise. — Naomi Novik

That's my No. 1 goal. I want to be part of (captain) Tom Lehman 's team. — Fred Funk

Books that have become classics - books that have had their day and now get more praise than perusal - always remind me of retired colonels and majors and captains who, having reached the age limit, find themselves retired on half pay. — Thomas Bailey Aldrich

The Seconds that tick as the clock moves along
Are Privates who march with a spirit so strong.
The Minutes are Captains. The Hours of the day
Are Officers brave, who lead on to the fray.
So, remember, when tempted to loiter and dream
You've an army at hand; your command is supreme;
And question yourself, as it goes on review
Had it helped in the fight with the best it could do? — Philander Chase Johnson

You've probably met moms like that. You say, "Yeah, I scored a goal in the soccer game last night." And she says, "Oh, that's nice. All fourteen of my children are the captains of their teams, and they make straight A's and can play the violin." And you just want to smack her. — Rick Riordan

You don't want captains in the army who know too much or think too much. — Robert Graves

I was elected a Captain of Volunteers
a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. — Abraham Lincoln

I'm inspired every day by the great captains of industry and enlightened entrepreneurs like my great-great-grandfather and founder of Fiat, Giovanni Agnelli, who personally knew all his workers and gave so much to this country, or Adriano Olivetti, unique and innovative in every way. — Lapo Elkann

Myself, Eric Wareheim, and Jason Woliner decided to start a Food Club where the three of us go to restaurants with a couple of other people. The three of us are the captains of the Food Club, so we have to wear the captains' hats. — Aziz Ansari

A frightened captain makes a frightened crew. — Lister Sinclair

Three black men walked past us wearing airline uniforms, visored caps, white pants and jackets whose shoulders bristled with epaulettes. Black pilots? Black captains? It was 1962. In our country, the cradle of democracy, whose anthem boasted 'the land of the free, the home of the brave,' the only black men in our airports fueled planes, cleaned cabins, loaded food or were skycaps, racing the pavement for tips. — Maya Angelou

We see many instances of cities going down like sinking ships to their destruction. There have been such wrecks in the past and there surely will be others in the future, caused by the wickedness of captains and crews alike. For these are guilty men, whose sin is supreme ignorance of what matters most. — Plato

So Captain Faith conducted the prince and his mighty captains and men of war into the castle in the very heart of Mansoul. Prince Emmanuel had come home. — Ethel Barrett

In constructing the Coast Guard, Hamilton insisted on rigorous professionalism and irreproachable conduct. He knew that if revenue-cutter captains searched vessels in an overbearing fashion, this high-handed behavior might sap public support, so he urged firmness tempered with restraint. He reminded skippers to "always keep in mind that their countrymen are free men and as such are impatient of everything that bears the least mark of a domineering spirit. [You] will therefore refrain . . . from whatever has the semblance of haughtiness, rudeness, or insult." 34 So masterly was Hamilton's directive about boarding foreign vessels that it was still being applied during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Hamilton — Ron Chernow

Because all men are but reflections of their upbringing, education, and experiences, we also expend considerable effort scrutinizing both the man and the general who led the Army of Northern Virginia north that summer. Robert E. Lee was trained as an engineer at West Point, studied extensively the campaigns of the Great Captains of military history, and learned the art of command and maneuver at the elbow of General Winfield Scott during the Mexican War. The aggregate of these experiences had a profound and demonstrable influence on his generalship. It is against this backdrop of education and experience that Lee's decisions during the Gettysburg Campaign must be examined, understood, and judged. — Scott Bowden

New Rule: Someone has to tell Francesco Schettino that embracing a callous policy of "every man for himself" doesn't make you a sea captain. It makes you the Republican nominee. — Bill Maher

It had borne all the ships whose names are like jewels flashing in the night of time, from the Golden Hind returning with her round flanks full of treasure, to be visited by the Queen's Highness and thus pass out of the gigantic tale, to the Erebus and Terror, bound on other conquests - and that never returned. It had known the ships and the men. They had sailed from Deptford, from Greenwich, from Erith - the adventurers and the settlers; kings' ships and the ships of men on 'Change; captains, admirals, the dark "interlopers" of the Eastern trade, and the commissioned "generals" of East India fleets. Hunters for gold or pursuers of fame, they all had gone out on that stream, bearing the sword, and often the torch, messengers of the might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth! . . . The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires. — Joseph Conrad

I need to gain a lot more experience. I think so much of being a director, other than the technical aspect and the artistry of it, is the confidence that you are, I think in many ways, you're the captain of the ship. — Josh Peck

I played under many Captains, but Dhoni is the one, who fulfilled my Dream of winning World Cup — Sachin Tendulkar

Your life is your ship and you are the captain. Choose your course, take the wheel firmly and get on your way. — Michael Josephson

You're never too worried as a captain, when you know Rahul Dravid's still out there. — Sourav Ganguly

It is unfortunate when final decisions are made by chieftains headquartered miles away from the front, where they can only guess at conditions and potentialities known only to the captain of the battlefield. — Attila The Hun

I pick first my best team, and my captain from that team and I only pick players that are on form. — Rudolph Straeuli

I remember in 1978 meeting two Ugandan captains in the hotel talking Russian. They had been educated in Moscow and since they came from different Ugandan peoples, it was the only way they could understand one another. — Ryszard Kapuscinski

I miss the personalization that Vegas was - there were showroom captains and all the dealers knew the gamblers by their first names. — Wayne Newton

The old sailors who traveled Earth's seas were said to have loved the ocean. The great captains said they were married to the sea or called the sea their mistress. Modern sailors held no such fantasies about outer space. Space did not love or hate, it simply killed anything it touched. — Steven L. Kent

Question: Why are we Masters of our Fate, the captains of our souls? Because we have the power to control our thoughts, our attitudes. That is why many people live in the withering negative world. That is why many people live in the Positive Faith world. — Alfred A. Montapert

The hackaneers, like the captains of pirate crews, had needed skilled men and women, and someone like Lang was in short supply. He had told his hackaneer captain which family members of the Chinese Politburo to target, to steal the pictures of their mistresses and investment records, to rob and blackmail and extort until the crew's coffers had swelled with loot. Then — August Cole

Managers think of themselves as captains of a ship on a stormy sea. Risk for them is danger, but they are fighting it, very controlled. — Daniel Kahneman

He's very competitive and knows what he wants. He has developed toughness in character and that is what is needed for Indian cricket. Ganguly has proved to be one of the best captains. He has now acquired great leadership qualities. — Steve Waugh

Let's not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it. — Vincent Van Gogh

I'll always rather be in a ship that's got a captain that has some vision. — Susan Sarandon

In any other job, they're truck drivers. In show-biz, they're Transportation Captains. — Drew Carey

Do you feel it's right for the England Captain to avoid his media duties? — Garth Crooks

Come,
Let's have one other gaudy night. Call to me
All my sad captains. Fill our bowls once more.
Let's mock the midnight bell. — William Shakespeare

When you do a movie, it's like going on a journey. It's really like the director is the captain of the ship, and that energy, everybody feels. — Kellan Lutz

You can't talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can't talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of the slums. You're really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry. Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism. — Martin Luther King Jr.

But at the same time, the film industry just got torched. The risk tolerance for the types of movies we're talking about is lower, and the reason for that is that the captains of the industry were asleep at the switch when their core business was being disrupted. And they're never getting it back. In a way, it makes it all the more exciting when the good ones get through. — Edward Norton

Now, let's see how you fare against the Flying Dutchman and her vile captain, Davy Jones! — Davy Jones

Freeways flickering; cell phones chiming a tune
We're riding to Utopia; road map says we'll be arriving soon
Captains of the old order clinging to the reins
Assuring us these aches inside are only growing pains
But it's a long road out of Eden
(...)
Behold the bitten apple, the power of the tools
But all the knowledge in the world is of no use to fools
And it's a long road out of Eden — Eagles

No captain with all the hindsight in the world can predict how the wicket is going to play — Trevor Bailey

I am not Captain Save-A-Ho; I can only save one at a time, and that's me! — Tamar Braxton

Every man is captain of his career and there must be cooperation all around if he is to get what he wants out of life. — Walt Disney

History deals mainly with captains and kings, gods and prophets, exploiters and despoilers, not with useful men. — H.L. Mencken

There's a lot of me in Captain Jack and there's a lot of Captain Jack in me. And there is no pun intended. — John Barrowman

The Captains of Industry have always counseled the rest of us "to be realistic." Let us, therefore, be realistic. Is it realistic to assume that the present economy would be just fine if only it would stop poisoning the air and water, or if only it would stop soil erosion, or if only it would stop degrading watersheds and forest ecosystems, or if only it would stop seducing children, or if only it would stop buying politicians, or if only it would give women and favored minorities an equitable share of the loot? — Wendell Berry

If, as you say, our minds are delusion
generators, then we're all like blind and deaf sea captains
shouting orders into the universe and hoping it makes a difference.
We have no way of knowing what really works and
what merely seems to work. So doesn't it make sense to try
all the things that appear to work even if we can't be sure? — Scott Adams

To sing of Wars, of Captains, and of Kings/Of Cities founded, Common-wealths begun/For my mean Pen are too superior things, — Anne Bradstreet

MS Dhoni still the best bet as Test, ODI captain. No calmer finisher than Dhoni — Harsha Bhogle

The doors had a peephole, and periodically an Iranian guard would look through and choose who he would let in. It was a bit like waiting to be picked for a sports team at school. You stand there trying to look as useful as possible to the two kids lucky enough to have been chosen as captains. If they were picking you for footy you tried to look as tough as possible. For basketball, you tried to look as tall as possible. For cricket, as long-suffering and patient as possible. That day, every time the guard looked through the peephole, I tried to look as un-Great Satan-like as I could. — Peter Moore

Don't date the captain of the football team; be the captain of the football team. — Courtney Love

Every experience is a gift and happens for a reason. No matter how big or small, we are reminded that we are the captains of our ship. — Alexz Johnson

A really conscientious doctor ought to die with his patient. The captain goes down with his ship. — Eugene Ionesco

Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is Isolation. As you grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can create conflict as your goals may not match with others. And you may drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family. But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise. Love yourself first, and then others. — Chetan Bhagat

So we may well believe that the King's men were shriven on the night before they fought. Something of the young man's vision had penetrated to his captains and his soldiers. Something of the new ideal of the Round Table which was to be born in pain, something about doing a hateful and dangerous action for the sake of decency
for they knew that the fight was to be fought in blood and death without reward. They would get nothing but the unmarketable conscience of having done what they ought to do in spite of fear
something which wicked people have often debased by calling it glory with too much sentiment, but which is glory all the same. This idea was in the hearts of the young men who knelt before the God-distributing bishops
knowing that the odds were three to one, and that their own warm bodies might be cold at sunset. — T.H. White

The masses do not see the Sirens. They do not hear songs in the air. Blind, deaf, stooping, they pull at their oars in the hold of the earth. But the more select, the captains, harken to a Siren within them ... and royally squander their lives with her. — Nikos Kazantzakis

Who cares who's captain after the wings have fallen off. — Scott McNealy

I am not the captain of my ship. My ship is out there, but I don't have my course. You never know in this business. — Jamie Farr

The captain of the Titanic, who said to room service, Who sent for all this ice? Never got a dinner! — Red Buttons

I've played lots of law enforcement agents, and I do have friends that are in the bureau, in the DEA, and who are detectives and captains. — Malik Yoba

Captain Cuttle, like all mankind, little knew how much hope had survived within him under discouragement, until he felt its death-shock. — Charles Dickens

Calling all citizens all over the world, this is Captain America calling. — Ray Davies

One man wrote me, saying, 'You know who you are? You're nothing but a Captain Bly pissing up a drainpipe!' — Robert Bly

The Average Occidental- be he a democrat or a Fascist, a Capitalist or a Bolshevik, a manual worker or an intellectual- knows only one positive "religion", and that is the worship of material progress, the belief that there is no other goal in life than to make that very life continually easier or, as the current expression goes, "independent of nature". The temples of this "religion" are the gigantic factories, cinemas, chemical laboratories, dancing halls, hydro- electric works; and its priests are bankers, engineers,film stars, captains of industry, record-airmen. The unavoidable result of this craving after power and pleasure is the creation of hostile groups armed to the teeth and determined to destroy each other whenever their respective interests come to clash. And on the cultural side the result is the creation of a human type whose morality is confined to the question of practical utility alone, and whose highest criterion of good and evil is material progress. — Muhammad Asad

Dads had favourite armchairs in which they sat like starship captains, issuing orders and receiving cups of tea and shouting at the news without fear of contradiction. — David Nicholls

The line moved slowly toward the window. Lieutenants, captains, senior lieutenants, some wearing neat new uniforms, others coming back from hospitals and wearing used uniforms, washed and mended where the bullet or shell fragment had damaged them. That whole long line on its way to the front passed by that food window. — Grigory Baklanov

It makes me itch to think of myself as Captain Beefheart. I don't even have a boat. — Don Van Vliet

Listen to me. Forget all you saw. Leave it. Take your mind from it. It has nothing to do with you. But use it for experience. Now you know what hurt it brings to women when men come into the world. Remember, and make it up to your Mama and to all women ... And another thing let it do. There is no room for pride in any man. There is no room for unkindness. There is not room for wit at the expense of others. All men are born the same, and equal. As you saw today, so come Captains and the Kings and the Tinkers and the Tailors. Let the memory direct your dealings with men and women. And be sure to take good care of Mama. Is it? — Richard Llewellyn

I am the captain of my destiny, I do not abandon the ship in hard times, But, I do have sense enough not to go down with the ship. — Cesare Pavese

A Pakistani exchange student's maternal American host "managed to summon the transforming question of her culture, built on the revolutionary idea that people are the sovereign, the boss, captains of their own fate.
She said, simply, "But what do YOU think? — Ron Suskind

The pay and privilege of the captains of industry are now so closely linked to the quarterly dividend that they may find it personally unrewarding to do what is right for the company. — W. Edwards Deming

Some captains made no attempt to save the lives of merchant seamen; others went so far as to tow lifeboats towards land. One u-boat commander sent the captain of a torpedoed ship three bottles of wine to ease the long row ashore. — Erik Larson

I once performed The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald to about 15 sea captains. The song was about a ship that broke in half and sank. — Gordon Lightfoot

I felt pride, wonderful pride, when I was captain. It was an honour to take over from Labby. Anybody who has ever captained a big club, which Everton are, will tell you it's a great honour. — Alan Ball

Lieutenants lied to captains, captains lied to colonels, colonels lied to generals, generals lied to politicians, politicians lied to the people. Right on up and down the line. It was like a complete and total, not a total lie, but just like so much, it was like PR, in other words it was like okay, we've got to sell the war to the American people. — Peter P. Mahoney

Waterloo is a battle of the first rank won by a captain of the second — Victor Hugo

Somebody can be the captain of the ship, which allows you to make big mistakes. — Susan Sarandon

A widow is like a frigate of which the first captain has been shipwrecked. — Alphonse Karr

But I beg you to observe that there is a wide difference between being captains or governors of work, and taking the profits of it. It does not follow, because you are general of an army, that you are to take all the treasure, or land, it wins; (if it fight for treasure or land); neither, because you are king of a nation, that you are to consume all the profits of the nation's work. — John Ruskin

Our senior officers knew the war was going badly. Yet they bowed to groupthink pressure and kept up pretenses ... Many of my generation, the career captains, majors, and lieutenant colonels seasoned in that war, vowed that when our turn came to call the shots, we would not quietly acquiesce in halfhearted warfare for half-baked reasons that the American people could not understand. — Colin Powell

A century before the concept took hold in America, pirate ships were democracies. Most captains were elected by crew and could be voted out anytime. — Robert Kurson

Oh, I am a cook and a captain bold,
And the mate of the Nancybrig,
And a bos'sun tight, and a midshipmite,
And the crew of the captain's gig! — W.S. Gilbert