Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Quotes

13 Sourced Quotes

Tuesday, January 13, 1835: We made the land at Point Conception... the point of Santa Barbara, to which we were bound, lying about fifty miles to the southeast of this point, we continued sailing down the coast during the day and the following night, and on the next morning. On the whole coast of California there was not a lighthouse, a beacon, or a buoy, and the charts were made up from old and disconnected surveys by British, Russian, and Mexican voyagers. Birds of prey and passage swooped and dived about us, wild beasts ranged through the oak groves... herds of deer came to the water's edge.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
If California ever becomes a prosperous country, this bay [San Francisco] will be the center of its prosperity.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
There is a witchery in the sea, its songs and stories, and in the mere sight of a ship, and the sailor's dress, especially to a young mind, which has done more to man navies, and fill merchantmen, than all the pressgangs of Europe.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
On the morning of January 11th, 1860, I passed, for the eighth time, through the Golden Gate... As the shores of California faded in the distance, and the summits of the Coast Range sank under the blue horizon, I bade farewell — yes, I do not doubt, forever — to those scenes which, however changed or unchanged, must always posses an ineffable interest for me.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
There is not so helpless and pitiable an object in the world as a landsman beginning a sailor's life.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
The men [of California] are thriftless, proud, and extravagant, and very much given to gaming; and the women have but little education, and a good deal of beauty, and their morality, of course, is none of the best.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able, And on the seventh—holystone the decks and scrape the cable.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
It is always observable that the physical and the exact sciences are the last to suffer under despotisms.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Thou little bird, thou dweller by the sea,
Why takest thou its melancholy voice,
And with that boding cry
Why o'er the waves dost fly?
O, rather, bird, with me
Through the fair land rejoice!

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
The Californians are an idle, thriftless people, and can make nothing for themselves. The country abounds in grapes, yet they buy, at a great price, bad wine made in Boston...

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
The fondness for dress among the women [of California] is excessive and is often the ruin of many of them.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
As has often been said, a ship is like a lady's watch, always out of repair.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
As we made the high point off San Diego, Point Loma, we were greeted by the cheering presence of a lighthouse. As we swept round it in the early morning, there, before us, lay the little harbor of San Diego, its low spit of sand, where the water runs so deep; the opposite flats, where the Alert grounded in starting for home; the low hills, without trees, and almost without brush; the quiet little beach; but the chief objects, the hide houses, my eye looked for in vain. They were gone, all, and left no mark behind. I wished to be alone, so I let the other passengers go up to the town, and was quietly pulled ashore in a boat, and left to myself. The recollections and the emotions were all sad... and only sad.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.