164 Water Flowing Quotes to Inspire and Awe

Water Quotes to Inspire

Is there anything more inspirational than our very life source? Read these inspiring water quotes to help carry you on through your journey.

“Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you.” – Margaret Atwood

“As you move to the top, remember the story of the pump. If you start pumping casually or half -heartedly, you will pump forever before anything happens. Pump hard to begin with and keep it up until you get that water flowing. Then a great deal will happen.” – Zig Ziglar

“The fall of dropping water wears away the Stone.” – Lucretius

“Run wild and free like a waterfall” ― Anamika Mishra

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” – Rabindranath Tagore

“A river cuts through rock not because of its power but because of its persistence.” – Jim Watkins

“Water is soft and humble, but it is the most powerful and is the most endurable.” ― Debasish Mridha

“The sea is captive in a drop of water.” ― Marty Rubin

“The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.” – Isak Dinesen

“You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” – Rabindranath Tagore

“You don’t drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there.” – Edwin Louis Cole

“When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.” — Nelson Mandela

“When the water is calm, take as much distance as possible with your boat!” – Mehmet Murat ildan

“No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.” – Taoist proverb

“Don’t be a fish; be a frog. Swim in the water and jump when you hit ground.” – Kim Young-ha

“Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean.” – Christopher Reeve

“In order to reflect, think and plan, you must quiet yourself. You can’t see your reflection in churning waters. Water must be still to see your reflection.” – Karen Susman

Water Quotes to Make You Think

Grab your journal and a pen to reflect on these water quotes whose meanings may not be so clear at first.

“An over-indulgence of anything, even something as pure as water, can intoxicate.” – Criss Jami

“If I offer you a glass of water, and bring back a cup of ice, I’m trying to teach you patience. And also that sometimes you get ice with no water, and later you’ll get water with no ice. Ah, but that’s life, no?” – Jarod Kintz

“Water in the boat is the ruin of the boat, but water under the boat is its support.” – Jalaluddin Rumi

“The thirsty look for water, but water also looks for thirsty.” – Rumi.

“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Water is always working, reorganizing the land.” – Tim Palmer

“Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” – W. H. Auden

“A drop of water, if it could write out its own history, would explain the universe to us.” – Lucy Larcom

“A lake carries you into recesses of feeling otherwise impenetrable.” – William Wordsworth

“You can not hide on an island and expect that water will not find you.” – Chuck Bridges

“Water is the most perfect traveler because when it travels it becomes the path itself!” –  Mehmet Murat ildan

“Water is such a lifesaver into which we cannot breathe but without taking it into us we cannot live.” – Munia Khan

“Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.” –  Sun Tzu

“In my life, water has had the character of punctuation.” ― Sue Ellen Campbell

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet.” —African Proverb

“It is wise to bring some water when one goes out to look for water.” — Arab Proverb

“The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.” – Voltaire

“Water, in all its forms, is what carries the knowledge of life throughout the universe.” – Anthony T. Hincks

“Water is the most extraordinary substance! Practically all its properties are anomalous, which enabled life to use it as building material for its machinery. Life is water dancing to the tune of solids.” – Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Water Quotes on the Little Things

It is hard to appreciate life if you can’t appreciate the little things. Read these water quotes when you need a little reminder of how to find joy in the little things in life.

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” – John Lubbock.

“Where the waters do agree, it is quite wonderful the relief they give.” – Jane Austen

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

“Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.” – Wallace Stevens

“There is a waterfall in every dream. Cool and crystal clear, it falls gently on the sleeper, cleansing the mind and soothing the soul.” – Virginia Alison

“Every drop in the ocean counts.” — Yoko Ono

“Grace is finding a waterfall when you were only looking for a stream.” – Vanessa Hunt

“A pool is water, made available and useful, and is, as such, infinitely soothing to the western eye.” – Joan Didion

“A man of wisdom delights in water.” – Confucius

“Water is the soul of the Earth.” – Lucy Larcom

“The water caresses in the glass, like love in the body.” – Charles de Leusse

“I could float in the pool for hours, just letting the water carry me.” – Jill Scott

Water Quotes on Faith

Jumping off the deep end isn’t the only water quote that inspires a little leap of faith. Read on to learn more water quotes that will excite you to take that risk!

“There’s hope at the bottom of the biggest waterfall.” – Patrick Ness

“Sacraments are like hoses. They are the channels of the living water of God’s grace. Our faith is like opening the faucet. We can open it a lot, a little, or not at all.” – Peter Kreeft.

“This life is like a swimming pool. You dive into the water, but you can’t see how deep it is.” – Dennis Rodman

“All water is holy water.” ― Rajiv Joseph

“Water is sufficient…the spirit moves over water.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

“The places where water comes together with other water. Those places stand out in my mind like holy places.” ― Raymond Carve

“The water tells none of its secrets.” ― Nikos Engonopoulos

“Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams – they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do – they all contain truths.” – Muhammad Ali

“I believe that water is the closest thing to a god we have here on Earth. We are in awe of its power and majestic beauty. We are drawn to it as if it’s a magical, healing force. We gestate in water, are made of water, and need to drink water to live. We are living in water.” – Alex Z. Moores

“I am like water so to say, I will find my way!” – Md. Ziaul Haque

Water Quotes on Going With the Flow

We can learn a lot from water’s natural tendency to simply go where it is led, while at the same time carving it’s own path! Read these water flowing quotes if you need a little more flexibility in your life.

“Always be like a water. Float in the times of pain or dance like waves along the wind which touches its surface.” – Santosh Kalwar

“Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container.” ― Wallace Stevens

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

“I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.” – John O’Donohue

“Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” – Bruce Lee

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” – A. A. Milne

“Water is the most perfect traveler because when it travels it becomes the path itself!” – Mehmet Murat ildan

“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.” – Margaret Atwood

“Just let go – and fall like a little waterfall.” – Bob Ross

“Many a calm river begins as a turbulent waterfall, yet none hurtles and foams all the way to the sea.” – Mikhail Lermontov

“I pray to be like the ocean, with soft currents, maybe waves at times. More and more, I want the consistency rather than the highs and the lows.” – Drew Barrymore

“Love, like a river, will cut a new path whenever it meets an obstacle.” – Crystal Middlemas

Water Quotes on Change

Change is the only consistent thing in this life. Little matter on this earth understands that more than water. These water quotes will remind you how to stay strong in the midst of great change.

“I was still water, held by my surroundings. I am now a river, carving my own path.” – Scott Stabile

“He saw that the water continually flowed and flowed and yet it was always there; it was always the same and yet every moment it was new.” – Hermann Hesse

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” ― Martin Luther King Jr. 

“Life is like the ocean, it goes up and down.”― Vanessa Paradis

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” – Heraclitus

“River is time in water; as it came, still so it flows, yet never is the same.” – Barten Holyday

“I am like the water that runs over me, immune to permanence, recycling endlessly. I am water; I am life. The form may change, but the substance stays the same. Strike me down and I will rise again. Vincit qui patitur.” – Rick Yancey

“I have left almost to the last the magic of water, an element which owing to its changefulness of form and mood and colour and to the vast range of its effects is ever the principal source of landscape beauty, and has like music a mysterious influence over the mind.” – Sir George Sitwell

“They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual Becoming.” – Hermann Hesse

Water Quotes on Gratitude

Water is powerful, life-giving, and beautiful. Water gives us much to be grateful for! These water flowing quotes will remind you just how much you have to thank water for.

“Water is sacred to all Human Beings. If you do not have water, you cannot have life. I always remember to honor and pour the water because it is traditional.” – Autumn Morning Star

“Water flows from high in the mountains / Water runs deep in the Earth / Miraculously, water comes to us, And sustains all life.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

“Water is the reason of our birth; it is the healer, the destroyer and the final consumer.”― Neeraj Singhvi

“I love the sounds and the power of pounding water, whether it is the waves or a waterfall.” – Mike May

“Pure water is the world’s first and foremost medicine.” – Slovakian Proverb

“Water was liquid silver, water was gold. It was clarity—a sacred thing.” ― Aspen Matis

“Water is the driving force in nature.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

“Water is sacred to all Human Beings. If you do not have water, you cannot have life. I always remember to honor and pour the water because it is traditional.” ― Autumn Morning Star

“Water is the soul of the Earth.” – W. H. Auden

“Water is the mother of the vine, the nurse and fountain of fecundity, the adorner and refresher of the world.” – Charles Mackay

“Water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.” – Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

“Whoever thirst for the living Water shall be quench.” – Lailah Gifty Akita

“Water sustains all.” – Thales of Miletus

“When you’re thirsty and it seems that you could drink the entire ocean that’s faith; when you start to drink and finish only a glass or two that’s science.” – Anton Chekhov

“Water is my drink.” – Stephen Curry

“Do you ever feel like you’re getting sick, and then you have a glass of water and you’re like, ‘oh, that’s why people drink that.'” – Dina Hashem

Water Quotes on the Human Experience

The flowing of water has many metaphors with life itself. These thought-provoking quotes might just give you a new perspective on your own experience, and the collective human experience as well.

“Surrender to the flow of the River of Life, yet do not float down the river like a leaf or a log. While neither attempting to resist life nor to hurry it, become the rudder and use your energy to correct your course to avoid the whirlpools and undertow.” – Jonathan Lockwood Huie

“As many raindrops join to form a great river of water, many souls join their highest intent to form the river of evolved consciousness.” – Jonathan Lockwood Huie

“A calm water is like a still soul.”― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Life in us is like the water in a river.” ― Henry David Thoreau

“Water! You may not like it, but you have to drink it.”― Anthony T. Hincks

“Do not feel sad for your tears as rocks never regret the waterfalls.” ― Munia Khan

“Love, like a river, will cut a new path whenever it meets an obstacle.” – Crystal Middlemas

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” – Rumi

“In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence.” ― Kahlil Gibran

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”― Mahatma Gandhi

“I have seen the sea when it is storm and wild; when it is quiet and serene when it is dark and moody. And in all these moods, I see myself.” – Martin Buxbaum

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”― Ryunosuke Satoro

“Water links us to our neighbor in a way more profound and complex than any other.” – John Thorson

“We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.” – Jacques Cousteau

“When life places stones in your path, be the water. A persistent drop of water will wear away even the hardest stone.” – Autumn Morning Star

“You’re not a wave, you’re a part of the ocean.” – Mitch Albom

“A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets.” – Gloria Stuart

“Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water.” – Christopher Morley

“You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.” – Alan Watts

“Society is like a large piece of frozen water; and skating well is the great art of social life.” – Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“You swam in a river of chance and coincidence. You clung to the happiest accidents—the rest you let float by.” – David Wroblewski

Water Quotes on the Force of Nature

It is undeniable that water is the most insurmountable force on our planet. These quotes remind you of the power every drop of water holds.

“The deeper the waters are, the more still they run.” – Korean Proverb

“Like roots finding water, we always wind up moving towards what sustains us.” – Mark Nepo

“A lake carries you into recesses of feeling otherwise impenetrable.” – William Wordsworth

“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.” – Loren Eiseley

“Water is soft and humble, but it is the most powerful and is the most endurable.” – Debasish Mridha

“To understand water is to understand the cosmos, the marvels of nature, and life itself.” – Masaru Emoto

“Be like water, which is fluid and soft and yielding, as in time, water will overcome rock which is rigid and hard. Therefore, what is soft is strong.” – Anonymous

“To put your hands in a river is to feel the chords that bind the earth together.” —Barry Lopez

“I love the sounds and the power of pounding water, whether it is the waves or a waterfall.” – Mike May

“In practice, the ocean is the world’s wildest place because of both its fearsome natural danger and how easy it is out there to slip from the boundaries of law and civilization that seem so firm ashore.” – Rose George

“The ocean is a mighty harmonist.” – William Wordsworth

“Be like water. Flow, crash, fly!” – Md. Ziaul Haque

“When water falls, it flies.” – Anthony T. Hincks

“If the earth is a mother then rivers are her veins.” – Amit Kalantri

“The person who despises a drop of water is an utter ignorant who doesn’t know that billions of tiny creatures in this world can live with one water drop for days!” – Mehmet Murat ildan

Water Quotes on Beauty

Have you ever looked upon a lake or river and felt instant calm? The beauty of them tend to do that. These writers quite agree.

“Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes – every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man.” – Orison Swett Marden

“And I say also this. I do not think the forest would be so bright, nor the water so warm, nor love so sweet, if there were no danger in the lakes.” – C. S. Lewis

“A lake is a landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Look with open eyes and you will see the beauty of waterfall.” – Anthony Hincks

“How one raindrop marries the other and forms an ocean of love.” – Suyasha Subedi

“Listening to soft music and the sound of the ocean is quite relaxing to me.” – LaToya Jackson

“Why was it that the sight of water made everything in the world seem okay? She wanted to look at water every day.” – E.C. Diskin

“The water was pure and cold and came out of the Apennines tasting like snow melted in the hands of a pretty girl.” – Pat Conroy

“My desk faces the water, and I’m perfectly happy sitting there. I’m never lonely.” – Tom Stoppard

“Without water, life would just be rock.” – Anthony T. Hincks

“The lake and the mountains have become my landscape, my real world.” – Georges Simenon

Water Quotes About Humanitarianism

These water flowing quotes about the basic human right to clean water will reignite your activist bone.

“Water belongs to us all. Nature did not make the sun one person’s property, nor air, nor water, cool and clear.” – Michael Simpson

“O wise man! Give your wealth only to the worthy and never to others. The water of the sea received by the clouds is always sweet.” – Chanakya

“Clean water, the essence of life and a birthright for everyone, must become available to all people now.” – Jean-Michel Cousteau

“For many of us, clean water is so plentiful and readily available that we rarely, if ever, pause to consider what life would be like without it.” – Marcus Samuelsson

“Water is the most critical resource issue of our lifetime and our children’s lifetime. The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land.” – Luna Leopold

“Water is the lifeblood of our bodies, our economy, our nation and our well-being.” – Stephen Johnson

“Clean water is inestimably precious to waste!”― Mohith Agadi

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

Poetic Water Quotes

Some water quotes can’t be grouped into a theme. They are simply beautiful sentences to read and write, similar to the flow of water.

“The water is a dark flower and a fisherman is a bee in the heart of her.” – Annie Proulx

“In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“Water is sufficient…the spirit moves over water.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“You are water I’m water we’re all water in different containers that’s why it’s so easy to meet someday we’ll evaporate together.” – Yoko Ono

“We are imprisoned in the realm of life, like a sailor on his tiny boat, on an infinite ocean.” – Anna Freud

“Ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of time.” – H. P. Lovecraft

“No water, no life. No blue, no green.” – Sylvia Earle

“Water wants to join water. Youth wants to join youth.” – Hermann Hesse

“Water is colourless like life.” – Lailah Gifty Akita

“Make hope just like water in your life.” – Khaled Ibrahim

“The sound of water is worth more than all the poets’ words.” – Octavio Paz

“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),It’s always ourselves we find in the sea.” – E.E. Cummings

“I shall go the way of the open sea, to the lands I knew before you came, and the cool ocean breezes shall blow from me the memory of your name.” – Adela Florence Nicolson

“All rivers, even the most dazzling, those that catch the sun in their course, all rivers go down to the ocean and drown. And life awaits man as the sea awaits the river.” – Simone Schwarz-Bart