River Sayings and Quotes

Rivers are more than the place for a nice kayak ride or fishing trip, they’re often used as metaphors for life. We’re constantly flowing from one moment or milestone to the next, unable to stop the tide of time. Below you’ll find a collection of wise and insightful river quotes.

The face of the river, in time, became a wonderful book. . .which told us mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it had uttered them with a voice. And it was not a book to be read once and thrown aside, fir it had a new story to tell every day. Mark Twain
The road to democracy may be winding and is like a river taking many curves, but eventually the river will reach the ocean. Chen Shui-bian
The river plunged down in a long waterfall, plashing into several rocky pools on its way down the cliff. Alison Croggon
Faith does not need to push the river because faith is able to trust that there is a river. The river is flowing. We are in it. Richard Rohr
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
Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls his watery labyrinth, which whoso drinks forgets both joy and grief. John Milton
They can stop a river by building a dam, but I will be damned if they can stop my river of blood flowing through my veins and heart. Anthony Liccione
The Stone of Guilt in the River of the Mind, the block in the flow of intelligence. Paramahamsa Nithyananda
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man. Heraclitus
One takes what the river offers, both good and bad. The joy of living by running water far outweighs the sorrow. Matthew Goldman
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
The river knows the way to the sea: Without a pilot it runs and falls, Blessing all lands with its charity. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ask the river, where it comes from? You will get no answer. Ask the river, where is it going? You will get no answer, because the river lives inside this very moment; neither in the past nor in the future, in this very moment only! Mehmet Murat ildan
Be like a river. Be open. Flow. Julie Connor
The importance of the river cannot be overstated in the history of the country, or the development of the nation. Maurice Hinchey
The river route is certainly preferable, as it affords good grazing and an abundance of water. William Whipple
Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there someday. A A Milne
Rivers are roads that move and carry us whither we wish to go. Blaise Pascal
In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes, so with time present. Leonardo da Vinci
I chatter, chatter as I flow to join the brimming river, for men may come and men may go, but I go on for ever. Alfred Tennyson
How should men know what is coming to pass within them, when there are no words to graps it?How could drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet the river flows on. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
To put your hands in a river is to feel the chords that bind the earth together. Barry Lopez
He who does not know his way to the sea should take a river for his guide. Blaise Pascal
Swift or smooth, broad as the Hudson or narrow enough to scrape your gunwales, every river is a world of its own, unique in pattern and personality. Each mile on a river will take you further from home than a hundred miles on a road. Bob Marshall
Clean water is not an expenditure of Federal funds; clean water is an investment in the future of our country. Bob Shuster
I like geography best, he said, because your mountains & rivers know the secret. Pay no attention to boundaries. Brian Andreas
If a man going down into a river, swollen and swiftly flowing, is carried away by the current — how can he help others across? Buddha
The song of the river ends not at her banks, but in the hearts of those who have loved her. Buffalo Joe
We do not remember days, we remember moments. Cesare Pavese
The mark of a successful man is one that has spent an entire day on the bank of a river without feeling guilty about it. Chinese Philosopher