Scuba diving is amazing and allows you to explore a new world. But oftentimes, it can be hard to find the right words to describe what it is like to ‘fly’ over coral reefs and to be amongst the fishes. In those situations, it is great to know some scuba diving quotes!
The scuba diving quotes below can be considered the best ones and cover a wide range of scuba diving aspects. There are quotes that will inspire or that describe what it is like to dive. And of course, there are also quotes about conservation as it is an undeniable part of the hobby we love.
Inspirational Scuba Diving Quotes
Diving into the ocean can be inspiring, and these scuba diving quotes best convey this inspirational spirit.
1. “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” – Jacques Cousteau
2. “Diving is an investment of time and money but the rewards can be life-changing, literally.” – Andi Cummings
3. “Every time you dive, you hope you’ll see something new – some new species. Sometimes the ocean gives you a gift, sometimes it doesn’t.” – James Cameron
4. “From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free.” – Jacques Cousteau
5. “The best way to observe a fish is to become a fish.” – Jacques Cousteau
6. “Don’t wait any longer. Dive in the ocean, leave and let the sea be you.” – Rumi
7. “It’s another world, what the sea gives us. It’s a paradise.” – Roberto Alejandro “Tito” Ramirez Rivas
8. “I’ve had the joy of spending thousands of hours under the sea. I wish I could take people along to see what I see and to know what I know.” – Sylvia Earle
9. “Being underwater reminds me of the beauty in life’s simplicity. The sea pulses with life. It exudes it, breathes it; a constant reminder that everything is liquid.” – Timi Waters
Quotes about Diving
There is a lot that can be said about diving and there are even more reasons to become a certified diver. Use these quotes about diving to explain why it is amazing and to share your passion.
10. “As a diver, you are weightless and can move in all directions. You approach the freedom of a bird as you move in three dimensions in a fluid environment.” – Dennis Graver
11. “I can mention many moments that were unforgettable and revelatory. But the most single revelatory three minutes was the first time I put on scuba gear and dived on a coral reef. It’s just the unbelievable fact that you can move in three dimensions.” – Sir David Attenborough
12. “Taking your first breath underwater is an incredible experience. You’ve been breathing your whole life, it’s the definition of second nature, but all of a sudden the whole game has changed. It’s something that you’ve never focused on but now it won’t escape your mind.” – Natalie Lavery
13. “What all divers should remember is that scuba diving is a fun exploration of life. When you dive, don’t take yourself so seriously. Loosen up and relax. The point of scuba diving is not to focus on yourself; it’s to focus on the beauty of the underwater world. There’s nothing to accomplish on dives.” – Vanessa Vitri
14. “I actually love diving at night; you see a lot of fish then that you don’t see in the daytime.” – Sylvia Earle
15. “I do an awful lot of scuba diving. I love to be on the ocean, under the ocean. I live next to the ocean.” – James Cameron
Short Scuba Diving Quotes
If you are looking for short scuba diving quotes, these ones are the best ones. I, for one, love the first quote as diving into the amazing underwater world does feel like going home to me.
16. “Every time I slip into the ocean, it’s like going home.” – Sylvia Earle
17. “A lot of people attack the sea. I make love to it.” – Jacques Cousteau
18. “We dive not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” – Unknown
19. “Diving is a leap of faith plus gravity.” – Gabrielle Zevin
20. “75% of the Earth is water. Divers live on a much bigger planet.” – Unknown
21. “The sea is an underwater museum still awaiting its visitors.” – Phillip Diole
22. “I find the lure of the unknown irresistible.” – Sylvia Earle
23. “He who would search for pearls must dive below.” – John Dryden
24. “My favorite thing to do on this planet is to scuba dive.” – Buzz Aldrin
25. “I love moving in extra dimensions. Not just backward and forwards, but up and down and around.” – Kirsten Hubbard
26. “Underwater I hear the water coming to my body, I hear the sunlight penetrating the water.” – James Nestor
27. “It isn’t always the treasure that drives men down deep into the sea; it’s something else, something unexplainable, even to them.” – Jennifer Arnett
Diving Quotes that Inspire
28. “You’re 30 feet underwater, the ocean is brisk, the slight current is stirring the sand, the colorful fish are swarming, the bright red lobsters are playfully harassing the neon eels – everything seems surreal, especially the fact that you’re breathing underwater.” – Natalie Lavery
29. “I love all the unique things you see on each dive. Millions of little aquatic soap operas playing out between all the creatures. And the silence. Well, it’s not really silent down there, but the roar of bubbles blocks any other sound.” – Kirsten Hubbard
30. “Something, most certainly, happens to a diver’s emotions underwater. It is not merely a side effect of the pleasing, vaguely erotic sensation of water pressure on the body. Nor is it alone the peculiar sense of weightlessness, which permits a diver to hang motionless in open water, observing sea life large as whales around him; not the ability of a diver, descending in that condition, to slowly tumble and rotate in all three spatial planes. […] It is some complicated mix of these emotions, together with the constant proximity of real terror.” – Barry Lopez
31. “For most people, this is as close to being an astronaut as you’ll ever get. It’s leaving planet Earth behind and entering an alien world.” – Mary Frances Emmons
Ocean & Diving Quotes for Instagram
I first was enchanted by our planet’s oceans while whale watching and then lost my heart to them when I learned to dive in Sydney. There is nothing like being on or in the ocean. And I for one agree with Robert Wyland when he talks about the ocean in the following diving quote:
32. “The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.” – Robert Wyland
33. “The ocean is a living soup. I find that enchanting. I’m entranced by the abundance and diversity of life.” – Sylvia Earle
34. “You could start now, and spend another forty years learning about the sea without running out of new things to know.” – Peter Benchley
35. “The thing about the ocean is that the surface won’t always tell you what is going on underneath” – Jennifer Arnett
36. “The world’s finest wilderness lies beneath the waves.” – Robert Wyland
37. “Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean.” – Christopher Reeve
38. “There’s nothing wrong with enjoying looking at the surface of the ocean itself, except that when you finally see what goes on underwater, you realize that you’ve been missing the whole point of the ocean.” – Dave Barry
39. “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Andre Gide
40. “On a sea floor that looks like a sandy mud bottom, that at first glance might appear to be sand and mud, when you look closely and sit there as I do for a while and just wait, all sorts of creatures show themselves, with little heads popping out of the sand. It is a metropolis.” – Sylvia Earle
41. “One time on a dive, I wound up drifting up in darkness surrounded by billions of photoluminescent creatures. It was a religious experience, one only a poet could do justice to.” – Graham Hawkes
42. “On the surface of the ocean, men wage war and destroy each other; but down here, just a few feet beneath the surface, there is a calm and peace, unmolested by man.” – Jules Verne
43. “And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came.” – John F. Kennedy
Diving Quotes about Sharks
Our oceans would not be the same without sharks. And just like an ocean without sharks would be incomplete, a list of scuba diving quotes would not be comprehensive without some quotes about sharks aka ‘the ocean’s puppies’.
44. “Sharks are beautiful animals, and if you’re lucky enough to see lots of them, that means that you’re in a healthy ocean. You should be afraid if you are in the ocean and don’t see sharks.” – Sylvia Earle
45. “I don’t think you can be a diver without a shark on the list.” – Natalie Dormer
46. “Sharks have everything a scientist dreams of. They’re beautiful―God, how beautiful they are! They’re like an impossibly perfect piece of machinery. They’re as graceful as any bird. They’re as mysterious as any animal on earth. No one knows for sure how long they live or what impulses―except for hunger―they respond to. There are more than two hundred and fifty species of shark, and everyone is different from every other one.” ― Peter Benchley
Thought-Provoking Ocean Quotes
47. “We need to respect the oceans and take care of them as if our lives depended on it. Because they do.” – Sylvia Earle
48. “Far and away, the greatest threat to the ocean, and thus to ourselves, is ignorance. But we can do something about that.” – Sylvia Earle
49. “No aquarium, no tank in a marine land, however spacious it may be, can begin to duplicate the conditions of the sea. And no dolphin who inhabits one of those aquariums or one of those marine lands can be considered normal.” – Jacques Cousteau
50. “In the Mediterranean of my childhood, there were no large groupers, sharks, or whales. All I saw was seaweed and a few fish, smaller than my little diving mask. All the large animals were gone, simply because we had eaten them.” – Enric Sala
51. “I want everybody to go jump in the ocean to see for themselves how beautiful it is, how important it is to get acquainted with fish swimming in the ocean, rather than just swimming with lemon slices and butter.” – Sylvia Earle
Conservation Quotes
It is easy to focus on the amazing elements of our underwater world. But we as divers also have a certain responsibility to protect the environment we love exploring. Here are some diving quotes that talk about conservation.
52. “Why is it that scuba divers and surfers are some of the strongest advocates of ocean conservation? Because they’ve spent time in and around the ocean, and they’ve personally seen the beauty, the fragility, and even the degradation of our planet’s blue heart.” – Sylvia Earle
53. “We have the responsibility to care for the ocean as it cares for us.” – Suzanne van der Veeken
54. “We still have 10 percent of the sharks. We still have half of the coral reefs. However, if we wait another 50 years, opportunities might well be gone.” – Sylvia Earle
55. “When people who love the ocean come together, they can achieve extraordinary things.” – Frances Beinecke
56. “We have been far too aggressive about extracting ocean wildlife, not appreciating that there are limits and even points of no return.” – Sylvia Earle
Roundup: Diving Quotes
While compiling this list of scuba diving quotes, it was important to me to include all relevant aspects of diving ranging from how amazing it is, to sharks and conservation. And while there are more, these diving quotes felt like the best ones to me, as every single one conveys something I want to share with others.
Here’s a scuba diving quote by me, that I once posted alongside some diving in the Red Sea photos.
57. “I, for one, couldn’t be happier that I get to explore the unknown depths of the ocean. I’ve never been happier than I am when I’m floating over a coral reef. Seeing all these wonders makes it easy to love life, and one cannot help but hope that future generations will have the chance to experience this amazing underwater world.” – Steph Kloeckener, A Nomad’s Passport
Which of these scuba diving quotes is your favorite quote? Do you know a great one that is not yet on this list?
Or are you not yet a diver and are trying to decide if scuba diving is the right hobby for you? If these scuba diving quotes were not enough to convince you, these reasons to learn to scuba dive should give you the final push you need.
More about Diving
If you like these diving quotes, you might also like these scuba diving guides:
Diving in Gran Canaria
Liveaboard Packing List
Which Scuba Diving Quote is Your Favorite?
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