Quotes about water
page 4

Heraclitus photo

“Ever-newer waters flow on those who step into the same rivers.”

Heraclitus (-535) pre-Socratic Greek philosopher

Fragment 12
Numbered fragments

William S. Burroughs photo

“There is simply no room left for 'freedom from the tyranny of government' since city dwellers depend on it for food, power, water, transportation, protection, and welfare.”

Cities of the Red Night (1981)
Context: There is simply no room left for 'freedom from the tyranny of government' since city dwellers depend on it for food, power, water, transportation, protection, and welfare. Your right to live where you want, with companions of your choosing, under laws to which you agree, died in the eighteenth century with Captain Mission. Only a miracle or a disaster could restore it.

Jeff Lynne photo

“Midnight on the water
I saw the ocean's daughter
Walking on a wave's chicane
Staring as she called my name And I can't get it out of my head”

Jeff Lynne (1947) British rock musician

"" ("Walking on a wave's chicane" are the official lyrics, but these are often heard and quoted as "Walking on a wave she came")
Eldorado, A Symphony (1974)
Context: Midnight on the water
I saw the ocean's daughter
Walking on a wave's chicane
Staring as she called my name And I can't get it out of my head
No, I can't get it out of my head
Now my old world is gone for dead
'Cos I can't get it out of my head

Hermann Hesse photo

“When you throw a rock into the water, it will speed on the fastest course to the bottom of the water. This is how it is when Siddhartha has a goal, a resolution.”

Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German writer

As translated by Ejvind Haas
Siddhartha (1922)
Context: When you throw a rock into the water, it will speed on the fastest course to the bottom of the water. This is how it is when Siddhartha has a goal, a resolution. Siddhartha does nothing, he waits, he thinks, he fasts, but he passes through the things of the world like a rock through water, without doing anything, without stirring; he is drawn, he lets himself fall. His goal attracts him, because he doesn't let anything enter his soul which might oppose the goal. This is what Siddhartha has learned among the Samanas. This is what fools call magic and of which they think it would be effected by means of the daemons. Nothing is effected by daemons, there are no daemons. Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.

Eleanor Roosevelt photo
Benjamin Creme photo
Nikola Tesla photo

“For every person who perishes from the effects of a stimulant, at least a thousand die from the consequences of drinking impure water. This precious fluid, which daily infuses new life into us, is likewise the chief vehicle through which disease and death enter our bodies. The germs of destruction it conveys are enemies all the more terrible as they perform their fatal work unperceived. They seal our doom while we live and enjoy. The majority of people are so ignorant or careless in drinking water, and the consequences of this are so disastrous, that a philanthropist can scarcely use his efforts better than by endeavoring to enlighten those who are thus injuring themselves. By systematic purification and sterilization of the drinking water the human mass would be very considerably increased. It should be made a rigid rule which might be enforced by law to boil or to sterilize otherwise the drinking water in every household and public place. The mere filtering does not afford sufficient security against infection. All ice for internal uses should be artificially prepared from water thoroughly sterilized. The importance of eliminating germs of disease from the city water is generally recognized, but little is being done to improve the existing conditions, as no satisfactory method of sterilizing great quantities of water has yet been brought forward. By improved electrical appliances we are now enabled to produce ozone cheaply and in large amounts, and this ideal disinfectant seems to offer a happy solution of the important question.”

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor

The Problem of Increasing Human Energy (1900)

Ivo Andrič photo
Aldo Leopold photo
Francis of Assisi photo
James Baldwin photo
Voltaire photo
Wendell Berry photo
Leonardo Da Vinci photo

“Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), I Prolegomena and General Introduction to the Book on Painting

Leonardo Da Vinci photo
Laozi photo

“Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.”

Laozi (-604) semi-legendary Chinese figure, attributed to the 6th century, regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and fou…
Leonardo Da Vinci photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Teal Swan photo
Teal Swan photo
Eckhart Tolle photo
Kanye West photo
Thomas Sankara photo

“We must choose between champagne for a few or drinking water for all.”

Thomas Sankara (1949–1987) President of Upper Volta

Quoted in Le Monde https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2021/12/23/thomas-sankara-l-itineraire-tourmente-d-un-homme-integre-sur-brutx_6107156_3246.html

Teal Swan photo
Charles Bukowski photo

“I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it.”

Source: Factotum (1975), Ch. 17
Context: I got into bed, opened the bottle, worked the pillow into a hard knot behind my back, took a deep breath, and sat in the dark looking out of the window. It was the first time I had been alone for five days. I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it. The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me. I took a drink of wine.

Nicholas Sparks photo
James Joyce photo
Joris-Karl Huysmans photo
Rick Riordan photo
Victor Hugo photo

“What Is Love? I have met in the streets a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, the water passed through his shoes and the stars through his soul.”

Variant: I met in the street a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat was threadbare - there were holes at his elbows; the water passed through his shoes and the stars through his soul.
Source: Les Misérables

Ann Brashares photo
Mitch Albom photo

“It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.”

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003)
Context: Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them - a mother's approval, a father's nod - are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.

William Carlos Williams photo
Anne Lamott photo

“Sometimes grace works like water wings when you feel you are sinking.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith

Jodi Picoult photo
Jeanette Winterson photo

“You are a pool of clear water where the light plays”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: Written on the Body

Miranda July photo
Charlaine Harris photo
Markus Zusak photo
Karen Marie Moning photo
Lyndon B. Johnson photo
Steven Wright photo

“I bought some powdered water, but I don't know what to add.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Steven Wright Special (1985)

Clive Barker photo
Cornelia Funke photo
Holly Black photo
Patrick Rothfuss photo
Gwendolyn Brooks photo
Rick Riordan photo
Jane Austen photo

“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.”

Variant: But I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and as if women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures. We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days.
Source: Persuasion

Miranda July photo
Robert Jordan photo
Markus Zusak photo
Hans Christian Andersen photo
Rick Riordan photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo
Lorrie Moore photo
Garth Nix photo
Markus Zusak photo
Charlaine Harris photo
Jeffrey Eugenides photo
Gary Snyder photo
Kate Chopin photo
Pablo Neruda photo
Rudyard Kipling photo
David Nicholls photo
Francesca Lia Block photo
Jeffrey Eugenides photo
Ruth Ozeki photo
Karl Pilkington photo

“They keep saying that sea levels are rising an all this. It's nowt to do with the icebergs melting, it's because there's too many fish in it. Get rid of some of the fish and the water will drop. Simple. Basic science.”

Karl Pilkington (1972) English television personality, social commentator, actor, author and former radio producer

3 Minute Wonder, Episode 4
On Nature
Source: The Ricky Gervais Show - First, Second and Third Seasons

Rick Riordan photo
Janet Fitch photo

“I hated labels anyway. People didn’t fit in slots—prostitute, housewife, saint—like sorting the mail. We were so mutable, fluid with fear and desire, ideals and angles, changeable as water.”

Variant: I hated labels anyway. People didn't fit in slots--prostitute, housewife, saint--like sorting the mail. We were so mutable, fluid with fear and desire, ideals and angles, changeable as water.
Source: White Oleander

“What is the scent of water?"
"Renewal. The goodness of God coming down like dew.”

Elizabeth Goudge (1900–1984) English fiction writer

Source: The Scent of Water

Deb Caletti photo
Elizabeth Gilbert photo

“I just want God. I want God inside me. I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water.”

Variant: I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on the water.
Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Rick Riordan photo

“I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.”

Variant: I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing...
Source: The Lightning Thief

Jodi Picoult photo
James Joyce photo
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin photo
Tom Robbins photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Markus Zusak photo

“So much good, so much evil. Just add water.”

Source: The Book Thief