Quotes about water

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“All day, the colors had been those of dusk, mist moving like a water creature across the great flanks of mountains possessed of ocean shadows and depths.”

Kiran Desai book The Inheritance of Loss

“[…] even in the cruelest human being there can exist a flower of good. Maybe just the tiniest blossom, in need of water and sunlight, but a flower just the same.”

Meg Cabot book Shadowland

“There was nothing I wanted to do more than be unconscious again, wrapped in black, gone away. I was raw. I felt swollen with potential tears, like a water balloon filled to burst. Begging for a pin prick.”

Gillian Flynn book Sharp Objects

“always either on a peak of happiness or drowning in black waters of despair they loved or they loathed, they lived in a world of superlatives”

Nancy Mitford book The Pursuit of Love

“Owen meany who rarely wasted words and who had the conversation-stopping habit of dropping remarks like coins into a deep pool of water… remarks that sank, like truth, to the bottom of the pool where they would remain untouchable.”

John Irving book A Prayer for Owen Meany

“The wave does not need to die to become water. She is already water.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

“Give me silence, water, hope
Give me struggle, iron, volcanoes.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

“It enclosed us in its laceries as we watched the moon spill across the Atlantic like wine from an overturned glass. With the light all around us, we felt secret in that moon-infused water like pearls forming in the soft tissues of oysters.”

Pat Conroy book Beach Music

“He shook my dozing soul and threw the cold water of reality in my face, so that life and God and heaven and hell broke into my world with glory and horror. (on CS Lewis)”

John Piper (1946) American writer

“Hell,” he said. “Just when it was getting interesting, too.” And he leaped into the water after his friend.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

“There will be water if God wills it.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

“Thank Ra!” She exclaimed.
“Yeah, I’m alive.”
“No, I almost jumped in after you. I hate the water!”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

“Pritkin and Mircea mixed like oil and water, only not so well.”

Karen Chance American writer

“If snow melts down to water, does it still remember being snow?”

Jennifer McMahon (1968) American writer

“I thought that a man can be an enemy of other men, of the moments of other men, but not of a country: not of fireflies, words, gardens, streams of water, sunsets.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

“I said breathe. Not do a fish-out of-water imitation.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

“You must empty out the dirty water before you fill the pitcher with clean.”

Idries Shah (1924–1996) writer and Sufi teacher

“If one tries to navigate unknown waters one runs the risk of shipwreck”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“Poppy: Um, can we cross running water?
James: Sure. And we can walk into people's homes without being invited, and roll in garlic if we don't mind losing friends.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

“Grace, like water, flows to the lowest part.”

Philip Yancey (1949) American writer

“Like silence after noise, or cool, clear water on a hot, stuffy day, Emptiness cleans out the messy mind and charges up the batteries of spiritual energy. Many people are afraid of Emptiness, however, because it reminds them of Loneliness.”

Benjamin Hoff book The Tao of Pooh

“He was unheeded, happy, and near to the wild heart of life. He was alone and young and wilful and wildhearted, alone amid a waste of wild air and brackish waters and the seaharvest of shells and tangle and veiled grey sunlight.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

“Unlike a fountain that circulates the same water in an enclosed, perpetually recycling system, a human being circulates thoughts in an unlimited reservoir of self.

Don't limit yourself to being a mere fountain when you contain an ocean.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

“You don't need water to feel like you're drowning, do you?”

Jodi Picoult book Nineteen Minutes

“I kissed him until everything that hurt inside me melted into a pool of black water so deep I couldn’t touch the bottom. As long as I was touching him, I wouldn’t drown.”

Laurie Halse Anderson (1961) American children's writer

“Just then, my phone started ringing. The ring must have been damaged by the water as well, so now it had a high, keening note - kind of the sound I imagine a mermaid might make if you punched her in the face.”

Maureen Johnson book Let It Snow

“I don't like my language watered down, I don't like my edges rounded off.”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

“She was truly a beautiful girl. I could feel a small polished stone sinking through the darkest waters of my heart. All those deep convoluted channels and passageways, and yet she managed to toss her pebble right down to the bottom of it all.”

Haruki Murakami book Dance Dance Dance

“Silver nitrate and water in a super soaker," he told her. "My own invention. Ought to be good at twenty feet, kind of like wasp spray."
Oh. "You get me the nicest things."
"Anybody can get jewelry. Posers”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

“Zen masters say you cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

“later down the road of life, i made the discovery that salt water was also good for the mental abrasions one inevitably acquires on land.”

Jimmy Buffett book A Pirate Looks at Fifty

“The optimum population is modeled on the iceberg — eight ninths below the water line, one ninth above.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

“It's my motto for life. 'Walk slowly; drink lots of water.”

Haruki Murakami book After Dark

“There is no past or future. Using tenses to divide time is like making chalk marks on water.”

Janet Frame (1924–2004) New Zealand author

“his lips drink water
but his heart drinks wine”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

“If you should leave me, my heart will turn to water and flood away.”

Jeanette Winterson book The Passion

“I had forgotten that time wasn't fixed like concrete but in fact was fluid as sand, or water. I had forgotten that even misery can end.”

Joyce Carol Oates (1938) American author

“Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter, sermons and soda water the day after.”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

“There is no water and still less soap. We have no city, but lots of hope.”

Mary Pope Osborne (1949) American children's writer

“If you try to breathe water, you will not turn into a fish, you will drown; but water is still good to drink.”

Robin McKinley book The Hero and the Crown

“What the younger generation didn't understand was that the grass was greenest where it's watered..”

Nicholas Sparks book The Best of Me

“Aubrey, crouching on a nearby counter, watched me with squinty eyes, apparently pondering why anyone would willingly immerse themselves in water ever, let alone for extended periods of time.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

“Time flows away like the water in the river.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

“But maybe you never really had someone, she thought now. Maybe, no matter how much you loved them, they could slip through your fingers like water, and there was nothing you could do about it.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

“But-Jace what are you doing?'
'Finishing my shower. And if you‘ve made me run through all the hot water, I‘ll be very annoyed.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

“Monsieur' to a convict is a glass of water to a man dying of thirst at sea; ignominy thirsts for respect.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

“Craftsmanship isn’t like water in an earthen pot, to be taken out by the dipperful until it’s empty. No, the more drawn out the more remains.”

Lloyd Alexander book Taran Wanderer

“In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.”

Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) English poet

“The offing was barred by a black bank of clouds, and the tranquil water-way leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky--seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness.”

Joseph Conrad book Heart of Darkness

“America was different. America was a river, roarng along, unmindful of the past. I could wade into this river, let my sins drown to the bottom, let the waters carry me someplace far. Someplace with no ghosts, no memories, and no sins.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

“Later he saw Jesus move from tree to tree in the back of his mind, a wild ragged figure motioning him to turn around and come off into the dark where he might be walking on the water and not know it and then suddenly know it and drown.”

Flannery O’Connor book Wise Blood

“I look after those who look after me." He smacks his lips, stares at me, and adds, "I also look after those who don't." - Sara Gruen (Water for Elephants)”

Sara Gruen book Water for Elephants

“We lead our lives like water flowing down a hill, going more or less in one direction until we splash into something that forces us to find a new course.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

“For the moment I can think of nothing— except that I am a sentient being stabbed by the miracle of these waters that reflect a forgotten world.”

Henry Miller book Tropic of Cancer

“Water seeks its own level. Look at them. The Tigris, the Euphrates, the Mississippi, the Amazon, the Yangtze. The world's great rivers. And every one of them finds its way to the ocean.”

Alison McGhee (1960) American novelist

“Heaven opened and the water hammered down, reviving the reluctant old well, greenmossing the pigless pigsty, carpet bombing still, tea-colored puddles the way memory bombs still, tea-colored minds.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

“Waitress: "And to drink?"
Artemis: "Spring water. Irish, if you have it. And no ice, please. As your ice is no doubt made from tap water, which rather defeats the purpose of spring water.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

“Rain amplifies your mistakes, and water on the track can make your car handle unpredictably. When something unpredictable happens you have to react to it; if you’re reacting at speed, you’re reacting too late. And so you should be afraid.”

Garth Stein The Art of Racing in the Rain

“For years I have had no mirror; I have learned to make do. The eyes of another can be a mirror more effective than water. If you will look at me, I can see my reflection in yours”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

“It will rain all this night and we will sleep transfixed by the dark water as our blood runs through our fragile life.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“If you neglect to recharge a battery, it dies. And if you run full speed ahead without stopping for water, you lose momentum to finish the race.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

“Show Holmes a drop of water and he would deduce the existence of the Atlantic. Show it to me and I would look for a tap. That was the difference between us.”

Anthony Horowitz book The House of Silk

“And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

“Phaedra looked across the water and her eyes met Lucian’s. Their needs came second. It came from the privilege of being trusted.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

“Asked about the fact that Apple's iTunes software for Windows computers was extremely popular, Jobs joked, 'It's like giving a glass of ice water to somebody in hell.”

Walter Isaacson (1952) American writer and biographer

“When you call me close
to tell me
your body is not beautiful
I want to summon
the eyes and hidden mouths
of stone and light and water
to testify against you.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

“One thing about which fish know exactly nothing is water, since they have no anti-environment which would enable them to perceive the element they live in.”

Marshall McLuhan book War and Peace in the Global Village

“No synonym for God is so perfect as Beauty. Whether as seen carving the lines of the mountains with glaciers, or gathering matter into stars, or planning the movements of water, or gardening — still all is Beauty!”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

“She had always wanted words, she loved them, grew up on them. Words gave her clarity, brought reason, shape. Whereas I thought words bent emotions like sticks in water.”

Michael Ondaatje book The English Patient

“I'm no more a wonder than anyone. And that's what makes the world magical. Every baby's a seed of wonder - that gets watered or it doesn't.”

Dean Koontz book Relentless

“A Boat

O beautiful
was the werewolf
in his evil forest.
We took him
to the carnival
and he started
crying
when he saw
the Ferris wheel.
Electric
green and red tears
flowed down
his furry cheeks.
He looked
like a boat
out on the dark
water.”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer

“The master of the garden is the one who waters it, trims the branches, plants the seeds, and pulls the weeds. If you merely stroll through the garden, you are but an acolyte.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

“His loyalty, so fierce and unwavering, makes my eyes water and heart ache.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

“I guess we're oil and water. (Phoebe)

I'd say we're more like gasoline and a blowtorch. (Dan)”

Susan Elizabeth Phillips book It Had to Be You

“I did not lose myself all at once. I rubbed out my face over the years washing away my pain, the same way carvings on stone are worn down by water.”

Amy Tan (1952) American novelist

“Life in us is like the water in a river.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

“When a child is locked in the bathroom with water running and he says he's doing nothing but the dog is barking, call 911.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

“Why worry about minor little details like clean air, clean water, safe ports and the safety net when Jesus is going to give the world an "Extreme Makeover: Planet Edition" right after he finishes putting Satan in his place once and for all?”

Arianna Huffington (1950) Greek-American author and syndicated columnist

“In the corner store we pulled fat bottles of water from the shelves. No one thinks it's weird that we have to buy clean water, and that's how I know we're going to hell.”

Michael Crichton (1942–2008) American author, screenwriter, film producer

“An ocean traveler has even more vividly the impression that the ocean is made of waves than that it is made of water.”

Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944) British astrophysicist

“If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water's edge.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

“I find now, swallowing one teaspoon
of pain, that it drops downward
to the past where it mixes
with last year’s cupful
and downward into a decade’s quart
and downward into a lifetime’s ocean.
I alternate treading water
and deadman’s float.”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States

“I woke to a bucket of ice water in my face.
“Sadie! Get up,” Zia said.
“God!” I yelled. “Was that necessary?”
“No,” admitted Zia.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

“Do you want to understand how to swim, or do you want to jump in and start swimming? Only people who are afraid of the water want to understand it. Other people jump in and get wet.”

Michael Crichton book Sphere

“Livin' is like pourin' water out of a tumbler into a dang Coca-Cola bottle. If'n you skeered you can't do it, you cain't. If'n you say to yourself, "By dang, I can do it!" then, by dang, you won't slosh a drop.”

Olive Ann Burns book Cold Sassy Tree

“It is clear that the world is purely parodic, in other words, that each thing seen is the parody of another, or is the same thing in a deceptive form.
Ever since sentences started to circulate in brains devoted to reflection, an effort at total identification has been made, because with the aid of a copula each sentence ties one thing to another; all things would be visibly connected if one could discover at a single glance and in its totality the tracings of Ariadne’s thread leading thought into its own labyrinth.
But the copula of terms is no less irritating than the copulation of bodies. And when I scream I AM THE SUN an integral erection results, because the verb to be is the vehicle of amorous frenzy.
Everyone is aware that life is parodic and that it lacks an interpretation. Thus lead is the parody of gold. Air is the parody of water. The brain is the parody of the equator. Coitus is the parody of crime.”

Georges Bataille book The Solar Anus

“Water is powerful. It can wash away earth, put out fire, and even destroy iron.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

“It is life, I think, to watch the water. A man can learn so many things.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

“the poisonous world flows into my mouth like water into that of a drowning man”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

“I would've hit the water hard, but at the last second I changed into a falcon.

~Carter Kane”

Rick Riordan book The Serpent's Shadow

“I will meet you on the nape of your neck one day, on the surface of intention, word becoming act.
We will breathe into each other the high mountain tales, where the snows come from, where the waters begin.”
-In the yellow time of pollen”

Luke Davies (1962) Australian writer

“People who cling to their illusions find it difficult, if not impossible, to learn anything worth learning: a people under the necessity of creating themselves must examine everything, and soak up learning the way the roots of a tree soak up water.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

“There's something wrong with a mother who washes out a measuring cup with soap and water after she's only measured water in it.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

“Wounds are like water set to boil – they heal best left unwatched…”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

“Behind her, Jace moved out into the water with a contained grace that barely rippled the surface. Simon behind him, was splashing and cursing.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

“It was one of those humid days when the atmosphere gets confused. Sitting on the porch, you could feel it: the air wishing it was water.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex

“I caught Bast’s arm when she was a few steps from the bank.
“Stay away from the water.”
She frowned. “Carter, I’m a cat. I’m not going for a swim. But if you want to summon a river goddess, you really need to do it at the riverbank.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

“How still,
How strangely still
The water is today,
It is not good
For water
To be so still that way.

~ "Sea Calm”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist