Rivers quotes
1.6K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside rivers — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Have a goal in life. When water is everywhere, it is a flood, but if it is in between banks, it is a river. It is nice to have a goal, so your life force gets channelized!"
"Are you searching for the river of your soul? Then come out of your prison. Leave the stream and join the river that flows into the ocean."
"Rivers are places that renew our spirit, connect us with our past, and link us directly with the flow and rhythm of the natural world."
"A lot of people think that regulations bring higher costs, but regulation is also about making sure that someone doesn't get to beat out the competition because they're dumping filth in the river or spewing poisons in the air."
"But I plucked a new, different, worldly soul for myself -- maybe a soul I found in the spray thrown up by the surge of that distant African river as it plummets onto black rocks and sends up into the sun a permanent arc of a rainbow."
"Unrestrained greed means the ruin of the great woods and the drying up of the sources of the rivers."
"Learn this from the waters: in mountain clefts and chasms, loud gush the streamlets, but great rivers flow silently."
"He was taught by the river. Incessantly, he learned from it. Most of all, he learned from it to listen, to pay close attention with a quiet heart, with a waiting, opened soul, without passion, without a wish, without judgement, without an opinion."
"Nothing remains the same from one moment to the next, you can't step into the same river twice. Life--evolution--the whole universe of space/time, matter/energy--existence itself--is essentially change."
"My school was six miles away from where I lived on the farm. I had to walk and run, there and back every day, through gorges and over rivers. If I was late, there was a very big stick waiting for me."
"How will you find good? It is not a thing of choice; it is a river that flows from the foot of the Invisible Throne and flows by the path of obedience."
"Perhaps some of us have to go through dark and devious ways before we can find the river of peace or the highroad to the soul's destination."
"Time is a river, and books are boats."
"Expect poison from the standing water."
"I'm drowning in whiskey river."
"Reaction - a boat which is going against the current but which does not prevent the river from flowing on."
"The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go."
"There is nothing in the whole world which abides. All things are in a state of ebb and flow, and every shadow passes away. Even time itself, like a river, is constantly gliding away ."
"Being here really is just the invitation to rest as Being. There is nothing you have to do. It is not an invitation to become. You will not be scrutinized, your actions compared with those of others. Thats just unicorn food. Let your river flow as it pleases. Simply observe and recognise that all is unfolding spontaneously when that inner journalist- the ego, is exposed as a myth."
"Worlds on worlds are rolling ever From creation to decay, Like the bubbles on a river Sparkling, bursting, borne away."
