Looking for a great quote that connects the rich symbolism of rivers with the human experience for your social media posts, home decor signage, email signature, or kayaking videos?

We’ve curated 30+ quotes from renowned authors, poets, movies, books, and philosophers that explore rivers as a source of inspiration and a mirror of life.

As fellow paddlers, lovers of rivers, and the life lessons they offer, we hope you'll find these quotes thought-provoking and inspirational…

flatwater kayaking on willamette river inspiration

Quotes about rivers

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." - Heraclitus, ancient Greek philosopher (Fragment 21).
"You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it." - Paulo Coelho, Brazilian author, from "The Alchemist" (1988).
"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it." - Norman Maclean, American author, from "A River Runs Through It" (1976).
"Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day." - A. A. Milne, English author, from "Winnie-the-Pooh" (1926).
"The river has great wisdom and whispers its secrets to the hearts of men." - Mark Twain, American writer, from "Life on the Mississippi" (1883).
"A river cuts through rock not because of its power, but because of its persistence." - Jim Watkins, motivational speaker.
"Time is like a river. You cannot touch the same water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again. Enjoy every moment of your life." - Unknown.
"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, German poet, from "Rilke's Book of Hours" (1905).
"Life is like the river, sometimes it sweeps you gently along and sometimes the rapids come out of nowhere." - Emma Smith, author.
"A river doesn't just carry water, it carries life." - A.D. Posey, American author, from "Write It Down" (2017).
"The river must be calm to reflect the full moon." - Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist, from "The Art of Communicating" (2013).
"When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy." - Rumi, 13th-century Persian poet, from his collected poems.
"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. This happens every single time, without exception. We are no different." - Jeffrey R. Anderson, American author, from "The Nature of Things - Navigating Everyday Life with Grace" (2013).
"I choose to listen to the river for a while, thinking river thoughts, before joining the night and the stars." - Edward Abbey, American author and environmental advocate, from "Desert Solitaire" (1968).
"The river is everywhere at once, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past." - Hermann Hesse, German novelist, from "Siddhartha" (1922).
"We may be floating on Tao, but there is nothing wrong with steering. If Tao is like a river, it is certainly good to know where the rocks are." - Deng Ming-Dao, Chinese American author, from "365 Tao: Daily Meditations" (1992).
"Rivers have what man most respects and longs for in his own life and thought--a capacity for renewal and replenishment, continual energy, creativity, cleansing." - John M. Kauffmann, American conservationist, from "The Conservation Foundation Review" (1970).
"A river is water is its loveliest form; rivers have life and sound and movement and infinity of variation, rivers are veins of the earth through which the lifeblood returns to the heart." - Roderick Haig-Brown, Canadian writer and conservationist, from "A River Never Sleeps" (1946).
"I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding." - John O'Donohue, Irish poet and philosopher, from "Conamara Blues" (2001).
"The river was beautiful and wise. There were the two of them being happy in a new way. For their happiness was of a kind that comes to people when they are very much alive and living closely with each other and with nature." - Virginia Sorenson, American author, from "Miracles on Maple Hill" (1956).
"Rivers are roads which move, and which carry us whither we desire to go." - Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and philosopher, from "Pensées" (1670).
"The river moves from land to water to land, in and out of organisms, reminding us what native peoples have never forgotten: that you cannot separate the land from the water, or the people from the land." - Lynn Culbreath Noel, American historian, from "With a View to the Southwest: Dorothy Morang and the Santa Fe Art Scene" (2014).
"Every river seems to come with a purpose. I have my purpose, too. And it’s not my purpose to die here." - Haruki Murakami, Japanese writer, from "Kafka on the Shore" (2002).
"There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination." - Oraibi, Arizona Hopi Nation, in an interview about Hopi Prophecies.
"Who hears the rippling of rivers will not utterly despair of anything." - Henry David Thoreau, American writer and philosopher, from "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" (1849).
"A river is the report card for its watershed." - Alan Levere, environmentalist and educator, from his speeches.
"The mark of a wild heart is living out the paradox of love in our lives. It's the ability to be tough and tender, excited and scared, brave and afraid - all in the same moment." - Brené Brown, American author and research professor, inspired by the river metaphor in her book "Braving the Wilderness" (2017).
"What is a river but a multitude of little streams?" - Alice Walker, American novelist and social activist, from "The Temple of My Familiar" (1989).
"I am like a river that flows with the current of the water. Whatever obstacle I encounter, I'll find a way to flow around it." - Demi Lovato, American singer and songwriter, from an interview with Cosmopolitan (2015).
"You don't drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there." - Edna