This “water quotes” collection will inspire you to keep moving towards your goals and dreams no matter what obstacles stand in your path.

Water is vital for all forms of life. Although it provides no calories or organic nutrients, water plays an important role in our world. It is the centerpiece of all life.

As we strive for a happier and more fulfilling life, we can draw a lot of inspiration from water. Despite being soft and humble, it cuts through hard rocks because of its patience and persistence.

So when life throws obstacles in your way, be like water and either cut through them or form a new path that will lead you to your goals and dreams.

To give you the motivation you need to keep flowing, below is our collection of inspirational, wise, and thoughtful water quotes, water sayings, and water proverbs, collected from a variety of sources over the years.

Don’t forget to also read our selection of inspirational rain quotes.

Water quotes honoring the flow of life

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. “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

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

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

Water quotes to inspire your day

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

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

13. “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

14. “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

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

16. “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” – Rumi
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of Rumi quotes from the iconic poet.

17. “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

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

19. “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

20. “All water is holy water.” ― Rajiv Joseph

You might also like these sea quotes to invoke depth and exploration.

Water quotes about life and progress

21. “I love the sounds and the power of pounding water, whether it is the waves or a waterfall.” – Mike May
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to check out our collection of waves quotes for surfers & beach lovers.

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

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

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

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

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

27. “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

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

If you’re enjoying these quotes, read our collection of dance quotes to help you find the perfect words about movement.

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

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

Water quotes to help you move forward

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

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

33. “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

34. “Water is the most perfect traveller because when it travels it becomes the path itself!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan

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

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

37. “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

Don’t forget to also check out these sky quotes for those who marvel the world above.

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

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

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

Interesting quotes about water and life

41. “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

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

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

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

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

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of blue quotes about the power of colors.

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

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

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

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of character quotes about the power of integrity.

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

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

Inspirational water quotes to help you move forward

51. “Water, in all its forms, is what carries the knowledge of life throughout the universe.”― Anthony T. Hincks
If you’re enjoying these quotes, you’ll love our collection of inspirational quotes that will brighten your day.

52. “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

53. “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

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

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to check out our collection of cool quotes about keeping a relaxed mind.

55. “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

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

57. “Water liked to be free. . . Water hated being trapped, just like Percy.”― Rick Riordan

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

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

60. “Be like water, which is fluid & soft & yielding, as in time, water will overcome rock which is rigid & hard. Therefor, what is soft is strong.”― Anonymous

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

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

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

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

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

Water quotes that will broaden your thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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

72. “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

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

74. “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

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

Thoughtful water quotes

76. “Water is my drink.” – Stephen Curry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

85. “Water is colourless like life.”― Lailah Gifty Akita

Water quotes that will get you thinking

86. “In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria.” – Benjamin Franklin

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of wine quotes to celebrate over your favorite glass.

87. “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

88. “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

89. “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

90. “My therapist set half a glass of water in front of me. He asked if I was an optimist or a pessimist. So, I drank the water and told him I was a problem solver.” – Unknown

91. “Water is insipid, inodorous, colorless and smooth.” – Edmund Burke

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

93. “Water sustains all.” – Thales of Miletus

94. “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, The Remarkable Networking Toolbox

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

Thought-provoking water quotes

96. “Do not turn me into restless waters you cannot promise to be my stream.”― Sanober Khan

97. “We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.” — Jacques Yves Cousteau

98. “There’s plenty of water in the universe without life, but nowhere is there life without water.” — Sylvia A. Earle

99. “Water is the only drink for a wise man.” —Henry David

100. “Water is the best of all things.” — Pindar

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

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

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

104. “Drinking water is essential to a healthy lifestyle.” — Stephen Curry
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of health quotes expressing the power of making healthy choices.

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

Insightful water quotes

106. “Water is life, and clean water means health.” — Audrey Hepburn

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

108. “Life depends on water, but the reservoir depends on you.” — Unknown

109. “A drop of water is worth more than a sack of gold to a thirsty man.” —Unknown

110. “My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them.” — Mitch Hedberg

111. “All the water that will ever be is, right now.” —National Geographic

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

113. “He that has satisfied his thirst turns his back on the well.” —Baltasar Gracian

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

115. “The people are like water and the ruler a boat. Water can support a boat or overturn it.” —William Shakespeare

Water quotes to inspire you to flow

116. “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

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

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

119. “Many drops make a bucket, many buckets make a pond, many ponds make a lake, and many lakes make an ocean.” – Percy Ross

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

121. “Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.” – Wallace Stevens
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of lake quotes to bring your life peace.

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

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

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

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

Powerful water quotes

126. “Water is the driving force of all nature.” – Leonardo da Vinci

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

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of moving quotes about the power of a new environment.

128. “We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.” – Thomas Fuller

129. “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

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

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

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

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

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

135. “When I sit here by the sea and listen to the sound of waves, I feel free from all obligations and people of this world.” – Henry David Thoreau

Water quotes to help you float through life’s storms

136. “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

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

138. “A Woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself.” – Maya Angelou

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

140. “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

141. “I understand that everything is connected, that all roads meet, and that all rivers flow into the same sea.” – Paulo Coelho

142. “Wondering if you are Love is like the ocean wondering if it is water.” – Unknown

143. “Going with the flow is responding to cues from the universe. When you go with the flow, you’re surfing Life’s force. It’s about wakeful trust and total collaboration with what’s showing up for you.” – Danielle LaPorte

144. “Water is fluid, soft and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.” – Lau Tzu

145. “When I sit here by the sea and listen to the sound of waves, I feel free from all obligations and people of this world.” – Henry Thoreau

146. “Understanding plays a very crucial role in everyday life, just like water. Everyone should drink it, because it is the antidote for contradictions and antagonism in every way.”― Elijah Onyemmeri

147. “Like water, every moment is precious.”― Michael Bassey Johnson

148. “Today, at any moment, more water rushes through the atmosphere than flows through all the world’s rivers combined.”― Cynthia Barnett

149. “Give water enough time and it will carve a tunnel through the thickest mountain.”― Marty Rubin

150. “Fresh water springs are a living embodiment of the fountain of youth.”― Jessica Marie Baumgartner

More water quotes and sayings

151. “Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive but adjust to the object and you shall find a way around or through it.” – Bruce Lee

152. “Water is the most basic of all resources. Civilizations grew or withered depending on its availability.” – Dr. Nathan W. Snyder

153. “It’s good to leave each day behind, like flowing water, free of sadness. Yesterday is gone and its tale told.” – Rumi

154. “You can’t trust water. Even a straight stick turns crooked in it.” – W.C. Fields

155. “Water should not be judged by its history, but by its quality.” – Dr. Lucas Van Vuuren

156. “Water adopts the shape of its receptacle, it is sometimes a trickle and sometimes a wild sea.”— Miyamoto Musashi

157. “In calm water, every ship has a good captain.” – Grover Cleveland

158. “Water seeks its own level and water rises collectively.”— Julia Cameron

159. “Water is a common heritage, the value of which must be recognized by all. Everyone has the duty to use water carefully and economically.” – European Water Charter

160. “If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.”— John Ortberg Jr.

Beautiful Water Quotes

161. “All water has a perfect memory and is trying to get back to where it was.” – Toni Morrison

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

163. “The sea is an underwater museum still awaiting its visitors.” – Phillip Diole

164. “The sea pronounces something, over and over, in a hoarse whisper; I cannot quite make it out.” – Annie Dillard

165. “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt

166. “Take me to the ocean. Let me sail the open sea. To breathe the warm and salty air and dream of things to be.” – Erica Billups

167. “The sea is a desert of waves, A wilderness of water.” – Langston Hughes

168. “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” – Jon Kabat-Zan

169. “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

170. “Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress.” – Margaret Atwood

Poetic water quotes

171. “Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain” – Edward Thomas, Rain

172. “The fountain is so happy.

The fountain is so glad,

You cannot make it sorry

You cannot make it sad.” – Annette Wynne, The Fountain Is So Happy

173. “My river runs to thee:

Blue sea, wilt welcome me?” – Emily Dickinson, The Outlet

174. “Of the rivers bright and golden,

Rolling onward to the sea,

In their beauty and their grandeur,

Thou the dearest art to me.” – Daniel Clement Colesworthy, Casco River

175. “”Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone.” – Margaret Atwood

176. “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

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

178. “Waterfalls wouldn’t sound so melodious if there were no rocks in their way.” – Rishabh Gautam

179. “So lovely was the loneliness of a wild lake.” – Edgar Allen Poe

180. “A lake so vibrant in color that it looks like a fine art painting.” – Stefanie Payne

Which of these water quotes was your favorite?

Water is the driving force in nature. It’s the lifeblood of humanity, our nations, our economies and our well-being.

Water represents life. It’s a symbol of love, purity, fertility, life, motion, renewal, and transformation. We hope that the above quotes have inspired you to move forward in your life and live it to the fullest.

Did you enjoy these water quotes? Which of the quotes resonated with you best? Tell us in the comment section below. We would love to hear all about it.

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