91+ Best River Quotes: Exclusive Selection

A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. Profoundly inspirational river quotes will make you look at life differently and help you live a meaningful life.

If you’re searching for quotes about nature and popular rain quotes that perfectly capture what you’d like to say or just want to feel inspired yourself, browse through an amazing collection of encouraging jungle quotes, famous cloudy day quotes and powerful waterfall quotes.

Famous River Quotes

Be like a river. Be open. Flow. Julie Connor

I’m really quite simple. I plant flowers and watch them grow I stay at home and watch the river flow. George Harrison

Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time? That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future. Hermann Hesse

Between flattery and admiration there often flows a river of contempt. Minna Antrim

May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children. Rainer Maria Rilke

The blues is a mighty long road. Or it could be a river, one that twists and turns and flows into a sea of limitless musical potential. Billy Gibbons

A river is more than an amenity, it is a treasure. It offers a necessity of life that must be rationed among those who have power over it.  Oliver Wendell Holmes

The river flows at its own sweet will, but the flood is bound in the two banks. If it were not thus bound, its freedom would be wasted. Vinoba Bhave

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. Norman Maclean

A dream is like a river ever-changing as it flows and a dreamer’s just a vessel that must follow where it goes. Garth Brooks

Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known. A.A. Milne

I had no plans of any destination. I wish to flow like a river. Lailah Gifty Akita

A good river is nature’s life work in song. Mark Helprin

Be like a river. Be open. Flow. Julie Connor

I choose to listen to the river for a while, thinking river thoughts, before joining the night and the stars. Edward Abbey

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

The rivers flow not past, but through us. John Muir

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

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

Rivers flow not past, but through us; tingling, vibrating, exciting every cell and fiber in our bodies, making them sing and glide. John Muir

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

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

I have never seen a river that I could not love. Moving water has a fascinating vitality. Roderick Haig Brown

The river is one of my favorite metaphors, the symbol of the great flow of Life Itself. The river begins at Source, and returns to Source, unerringly. Jeffrey R. Anderson

Love is the river of life in the world. Henry Ward Beecher

The care of rivers is not a question of rivers but of the human heart. Shozo Tanaka

Life is like the river, sometimes it sweeps you gently along and sometimes the rapids come out of nowhere. Emma Smith

Rivers are roads which move, and which carry us whither we desire to go. Blaise Pascal

A river doesn’t just carry water, it carries life. Amit Kalantri

Rivers know this there is no hurry. We shall get there some day. A.A. Milne

A good river is nature’s life work in song. Mark Helprin

A dream is like a river ever-changing as it flows and a dreamer’s just a vessel that must follow where it goes. Garth Brooks

The river waters quench the thirst of all living beings. Ram Nath Kovind

Stars do not struggle to shine, rivers do not struggle to flow, and you will never struggle to excel in life because of the power of your passion. Donald Driver

Those who stand at the threshold of life always waiting for the right time to change are like the man who stands at the bank of a river waiting for the water to pass so he can cross on dry land. Joseph B. Wirthlin

Ideas, like large rivers, never have just one source. Willy Ley

We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations. David Brower

The fountains of sacred rivers flow upwards. Euripides

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

When the well is dry, we know the worth of water. Benjamin Franklin

You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it. Paulo Coelho

There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in. Desmond Tutu

If my ship sails from sight, it doesn’t mean my journey ends. It simply means the river bends. Enoch Powell

The first river you paddle runs through the rest of your life. Lynn Culbreath Noel

The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river. Ross Perot

You know how a river goes on and on? That’s my love for you. Beth Kephart

You can’t be unhappy in the middle of a big, beautiful river. Jim Harrison

What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn’t have any doubt it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn’t want to go anywhere else. Hal Boyle

A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence. Jim Watkins

A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself. Laura Gilpin

The river moves, but it follows a path. When it tires of one journey, it rubs through some rock to forge a new way. Hard work, but that’s its nature. Kekla Magoon

Although we are in different boats you in your boat and we in our canoe we share the same river of life. Oren Lyons

The river is constantly turning and bending and you never know where it’s going to go and where you’ll wind up. Following the bend in the river and staying on your own path means that you are on the right track. Don’t let anyone deter you from that. Eartha Kitt

A man’s country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle, and patriotism is loyalty to that principle. George William Curtis

A river has many curves, but it always reaches the ocean. Donald L. Hicks

Days and rivers are the same; they both flow to the unknown oceans. Mehmet Murat Ildan

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

Rivers run through our history and folklore, and link us as a people We are a nation rich in rivers. Charles Kuralt

A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself. Laura Gilpin

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

If the earth is a mother, then rivers are her veins. Amit Kalantri

Time is a kind of river, an irresistible flood sweeping up men and events and carrying them headlong, one after the other, to the great sea of being. Marcus Aurelius

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

The good life of any river may depend on the perception of its music; and the preservation of some music to perceive. Aldo Leopold

He who does not know his way to the sea should take a river for his guide. Blaise Pascal

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

The river has great wisdom and whispers its secrets to the hearts of men. Mark Twain

Water does not resist. Water flows. Margaret Atwood

Who hears the rippling of rivers will not utterly despair of anything. Henry David Thoreau

We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations. David R. Brower

Just as a drop of water in the ocean cannot avail much; but if a great river runneth into it, that maketh a great commotion. Jakob Bohme

Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life. John Updike

What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn’t have any doubt it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn’t want to go anywhere else. Hal Boyle

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

Beside the river there are two things you never forget, that the moment you look at a river that moment has already passed, and that everything is on its way somewhere else. Niall Williams

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

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. Ted Turner

Love is the water of life, jump into this water. Rumi

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

Water, thou hast no taste, no color, no odor; canst not be defined, art relished while ever mysterious. Not necessary to life, but rather life itself, thou fillest us with a gratification that exceeds the delight of the senses. Antoine de Saint Exupery

The river asked me who I was to be gazing so longingly into her curving body of cascading dreams and shifting beauty. Todd Crawshaw

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

The sun shines not on us but in us. The Rivers flow not past, but through us. John Muir

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

May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children. Rainer Maria Rilke

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

Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time?” That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future. Hermann Hesse

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

On and on they flew, over the countryside parceled out in patches of green and brown, over roads and rivers winding through the landscapes like strips of matte and glossy ribbon. J.K. Rowling