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Rivers Quotes

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Rivers Quotes

“The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come and wait for the turn of the tide.”

Made Turns Waiting Darkness Wind Rivers Bounds Calm Tides Flood Sail Anchors

Book:Heart of Darkness By Joseph Conrad

Source: Heart of Darkness By Joseph Conrad

“The words of the scholar are to be understood. The words of the master are not to be understood. They are to be listened to as one listens to the wind in the trees and the sound of the river and the song of the bird. They will awaken something within the heart that is beyond all knowledge.”

Heart Song Sound Tree Wind Masters Bird Understood Rivers Scholar Wind In The Trees

Book:The Song of the Bird

Source: The Song of the Bird

“Who publishes the sheet-music of the winds or the music of water written in river-lines?”

Water Nature Lines Written Wind Rivers Sheets Publish Sheet Music

Author:John Muir

“A voice of greeting from the wind was sent; The mists enfolded me with soft white arms; The birds did sing to lap me in content, The rivers wove their charms, And every little daisy in the grass Did look up in my face, and smile to see me pass!”

Looks Littles Faces Voice Nature White Wind Arms Bird Rivers Grass Charm Look Up Lap Mist Daisies Greetings

Book:Poems

Source: Poems

“I wind about, and in and out, - With here a blossom sailing, - And here and there a lusty trout, - And here and there a grayling.”

Sea Wind Rivers Fishes Boat Lakes Fishing Sailing Here And There Trout

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Illustrated)

“A falcon hovers at the edge of the sky.Two gulls drift slowly up the river.Vulnerable while they ride the wind,they coast and glide with ease.Dew is heavy on the grass below,the spider's web is ready.Heaven's ways include the human:among a thousand sorrows, I stand alone.”

Way Humans Two Heaven Sky Ready Wind Sorrow Thousand Rivers Edges Heavy Vulnerable Ease Grass Coast Spiders Dew Stand Alone Falcon Gulls I Stand Alone

Author:Du Fu

“But, for all that, they had a very pleasant walk. The trees were bare of leaves, and the river was bare of water-lilies; but the sky was not bare of its beautiful blue, and the water reflected it, and a delicious wind ran with the stream, touching the surface crisply.”

Beautiful Water Nature Walks Tree Sky Wind Rivers Blue Surface Ran Streams Pleasant Touching Delicious Lilies Water Lily

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)

“There are many names for winds derived from localities or from the squalls which sweep from rivers or down mountains.”

Names Wind Mountain Rivers Locality

Author:Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

“The history of the universe and nature is being told to us by the stars, by the Earth, by the uprising and elevation of the mountains, by the animals, the woods and jungles, and by the rivers. Our task is to know how to listen and interpret the messages that are sent to us. The original peoples knew how to read every movement of the clouds, the meaning of the winds, and they knew when violent downpours were coming... We have forgotten all that.”

Knows Earth Universe Stars Animal Know How Movement Wind Mountain Messages Rivers Tasks Originals Environmental Forgotten Clouds Woods Violent Jungle Stewardship Uprising Elevation

Author:Leonardo Boff

“We have not wondered enough at the delights God has given us to appreciate them, and be good stewards. We have overworked the land, poured pollutants into river and stream, fouled the air we breathe with gas fumes and chemical smoke spiraling up from industrial chimneys. We have sown the wind. We are reaping the whirlwind.”

Enough Given Air Land Wind Appreciate Rivers Environmental Delight Breathe Be Good Smoke Streams Gas Chemicals Stewardship Chimneys Stewards Whirlwind

Book:A Stone for a Pillow

Source: A Stone for a Pillow

“We can break the mountains apart; we can drain the rivers and flood the valleys. We can turn the most luxuriant forests into throw-away paper products. We can tear apart the great grass cover of the western plains and pour toxic chemicals into the soil and pesticides onto the fields until the soil is dead and blows away in the wind. We can pollute the air with acids, the rivers with sewage, the seas with oil - all this in a kind of intoxication with our power for devastation at an order of magnitude beyond all reckoning.”

“Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could you ask of life? Aviation combined all the elements I loved. There was science in each curve of an airfoil, in each angle between strut and wire, in the gap of a spark plug or the color of the exhaust flame. There was freedom in the unlimited horizon, on the open fields where one landed. A pilot was surrounded by beauty of earth and sky. He brushed treetops with the birds, leapt valleys and rivers, explored the cloud canyons he had gazed at as a child. Adventure lay in each puff of wind.”

“The heart of a city Is the soul of a man It winds like a river Through the heart of the land They can tear down a building They can tear down a park They can strike at a symbol But they can't strike the heart.”

Men Heart Soul Cities Land Tears Building Wind Rivers Strikes Symbols Parks

Author:Janis Ian

“Swimming for his life, a man does not see much of the country through which the river winds.”

Knows Men Years Littles Doe Country Sin Wind Rivers Mercy Swimming Crowns Frailty

Author:William E. Gladstone

“It is a blessing. When I first got wind of [Chris Rivers] taking the rap thing serious and wanting to make a career out of it.”

Firsts Careers Serious Wind Blessing Rivers Rap

Author:Tony Sunshine

“If I'm reading about a river or the trees or the wind blowing or the stars at night, if you can hear that in the music in some way, you've wedded the two and your imagination takes off. To be able to hear that in music is really important.”

Ifs Way Two Important Able Night Reading Stars Imagination Tree Wind Music Is Rivers Wind Blowing

Author:Julie Andrews

“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.”

Knows Mean Path Wind Rivers Track Following Staying Bending Right Track

Author:Eartha Kitt

“Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes - every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man.”

“From too much love of living, From hope and fear set free, We thank with brief thanksgiving Whatever gods may be That no life lives for ever; That dead men rise up never; That even the weariest river Winds somewhere safe to sea.”

Men May Motivational Success Fear Too Much Sea Wind Safe Rivers Thanksgiving Dead Man Much Love Hopes And Fears

Author:Algernon Charles Swinburne

“When the railroad trains moaned, and river-winds blew, bringing echoes through the vale, it was as if a wild hum of voices, the dear voices of everybody he had known, were crying: "Peter, Peter! Where are you going, Peter?" And a big soft gust of rain came down. He put up the collar of his jacket, and bowed his head, and hurried along.”

Ifs Bigs Voice Known Cry Wind Rain Rivers Train Dear Peter Echoes Jackets Collars Railroads

Book:The Town and the City

Source: The Town and the City

“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason.”

Source: Hemingway's Paris

“I climbed a path and from the top looked up-stream towards Chile. I could see the river, glinting and sliding through the bone-white cliffs with strips of emerald cultivation either side. Away from the cliffs was the desert. There was no sound but the wind, whirring through thorns and whistling through dead grass, and no other sign of life but a hawk, and a black beetle easing over white stones.”

Sound Sides Black White Path Wind Rivers Stones Bones Desert Grass Streams Cliffs Thorns Cultivation Hawks Chile Whistling Beetles Emeralds Signs Of Life

Book:In Patagonia

Source: In Patagonia

“(Speaking of the Cistercian monks) A grim fraternity, passing grim lives in that sweet spot, that God had made so bright! Strange that Nature's voices all around them--the soft singing of the waters, the wisperings of the river grass, the music of the rushing wind--should not have taught them a truer meaning of life than this. They listened there, through the long days, in silence, waiting for a voice from heaven; and all day long and through the solemn night it spoke to them in myriad tones, and they heard it not.”

“Into the air, over the valleys, under the stars, above a river, a pond, a road, flew Cecy. Invisible as new spring winds, fresh as the breath of clover rising from twilight fields, she flew.”

Stars Air Fields Wind Spring Rivers Breaths Invisible Rising Valleys Twilight Flew Ponds Clovers

Book:A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories

Source: A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories

“What is true about a person? Would I change in the same way the river changes color but still be the same person?... And then I realized it was the first time I could see the power of the wind. I couldn't see the wind itself, but I could see it carried water that filled the rivers and shaped the countryside.”

Way Firsts Persons Stills Water Color Wind First Time Rivers Filled I Realized Countryside

Book:The Joy Luck Club

Source: The Joy Luck Club

“You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since-on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with.”

“At the end of the day, no amount of investing, no amount of clean electrons, no amount of energy efficiency will save the natural world if we are not paying attention to it - if we are not paying attention to all the things that nature give us for free: clean air, clean water, breathtaking vistas, mountains for skiing, rivers for fishing, oceans for sailing, sunsets for poets, and landscapes for painters. What good is it to have wind-powered lights to brighten the night if you can't see anything green during the day? Just because we can't sell shares in nature doesn't mean it has no value.”

“Like the sweet moon keeps the sky Like the wind goin' whooshing by When those ol' sunbeams break the day I will keep you while you play Just as ol' river keeps the fishes And little stars keep silver wishes Just as the ocean keeps the blue I will stand here close to you. When all around is dark and deep When them ol' shadows slowly creep Even when you're fast asleep It's you I'll keep, it's you I'll keep No need to cry, no need to fear I will always be right here. I will always be right here.”

Needs Littles Play Wish Stars Dark Break Sky Cry Sweet Wind Moon Ocean Shadow Rivers Blue Fishes Silver Creeps Sunbeams

Book:The Underneath

Source: The Underneath

“I am a child of the poisonous wind that copulated with the East River on an oil-slick, garbage infested midnight. I turn about on my own parentage. I inoculate against those very biles that brought me to light. I am a serum born of venoms. I am the antibody of all Time. I am the Cure. You do of the City, do you not? Manhattan is your punisher, let me be you shield.”

Children Light Turns Born My Own Cities Wind Rivers Let Me Oil East Cures All Time Be You Midnight Garbage Shields Manhattan Poisonous Slick Venom Antibodies Punisher

Author:Ray Bradbury

“Even now, as I write this, I can still feel that tightness. And I want you to feel it--the wind coming off the river, the waves, the silence, the wooded frontier. You're at the bow of a boat on the Rainy River. You're twenty-one years old, you're scared, and there's a hard squeezing pressure in your chest. What would you do? Would you jump? Would you feel pity for yourself? Would you think about your family and your childhood and your dreams and all you're leaving behind? Would it hurt? Would it feel like dying? Would you cry, as I did?”

Source: The Things They Carried

“She was as forthright and simple as the winds that blew over Tara and the yellow river that wound around it.”

Simple Wind Rivers Wounds Yellow

Book:Gone with the wind

Source: Gone with the wind

“Question four: What book would you give to every child? Answer: I wouldn't give them a book. Books are part of the problem: this strange belief that a tree has nothing to say until it is murdered, its flesh pulped, and then (human) people stain this flesh with words. I would take children outside and put them face to face with chipmunks, dragonflies, tadpoles, hummingbirds, stones, rivers, trees, crawdads. That said, if you're going to force me to give them a book, it would be The Wind In The Willows, which I hope would remind them to go outside.”

“I know already that I will return to this day whenever I want to. I can bid it alive. Preserve it. There is a still point where the present, the now, winds around itself, and nothing is tangled. The river is not where it begins or ends, but right in the middle point, anchored by what has happened and what is to arrive.”

Knows Want Stills I Can Ends Alive Happened Middle Wind Return Rivers Preserves This Day Tangled

Book:Let The Great World Spin

Source: Let The Great World Spin

“For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered? Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountaintop,then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shal claim your limbs,then shall you truly dance.”

May Earth Dies Silence Sun Wind Drink Rivers Claims Breaths Cease Naked Breathing Climbs Tides Restless Limbs Death Poems Condolences Poems

Book:The Prophet - Der Prophet

Source: The Prophet - Der Prophet

“Those hours given over to basking in the glow of an imagined future, of being carried away in streams of promise by a love or a passion so strong that one felt altered forever and convinced that even the smallest particle of the surrounding world was charged with purpose of impossible grandeur; ah, yes, and one would look up into the trees and be thrilled by the wind- loosened river of pale, gold foliage cascading down and by the high, melodious singing of countless birds; those moments, so many and so long ago, still come back, but briefly, like fireflies in the perfumed heat of summer night.”

Source: Collected Poems

“Momma said that ghosts couldn't move over water. That's why Africans got trapped in the Americas.. They kept moving us over the water, stealing us away from our ghosts and ancestors, who cried salty rivers into the sand. That's where Momma was now, wailing at the water's edge, while her girls were pulled out of sight under white sails that cracked in the wind.”

Said Moving Girl Water White Wind Rivers Sight Edges Stealing Ghost Sand Ancestor Trapped Cried Sail Cracked Momma Wailing Salty

Author:Laurie Halse Anderson

“And he misses her Like a wind starved sail He sits knowing what direction to go But the current keeps pulling him Down river.”

Knowing Missing Wind Rivers Currents Sail Pulling

Author:Rumi

“I don't believe in symbolic gods.I believe that god exists all around us.In the flow of the river,in the rustle of the trees,in the whisper of the winds. He speaks to us all the time.all we need to do is listen.”

Needs Believe Speak I Believe Tree Wind Flow Rivers Don't Believe Symbolic God Exists

Author:Amish Tripathi

“There's a flame of magic inside every stone & every flower, every bird that sings & every frog that croaks. There's magic in the trees & the hills & the river & the rocks, in the sea & the stars & the wind, a deep, wild magic that's as old as the world itself. It's in you too, my darling girl, and in me, and in every living creature, be it ever so small. Even the dirt I'm sweeping up now is stardust. In fact, all of us are made from the stuff of stars.”

World Made Facts Girl Stars Stuff Magic Tree Sea Rocks Wind Flower Creatures Bird Rivers Stones Hills Flames Dirt Darling Frogs Sweeping Living Creatures Stardust

Author:Kate Forsyth

“The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love.”

Source: John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir

“He understood how dangerous oaths could be. But Leo didn't care. "I'm coming back for you, Calypso," he said to the night wind. "I swear it on the River Styx.”

Said Care Night Dangerous Wind Understood Rivers Swear Coming Back Oath Calypso Styx

Author:Rick Riordan

“Hark, I hear a robin calling! List, the wind is from the south! And the orchard-bloom is falling Sweet as kisses on the mouth. In the dreamy vale of beeches Fair and faint is woven mist, And the river's orient reaches Are the palest amethyst. Every limpid brook is singing Of the lure of April days; Every piney glen is ringing With the maddest roundelays. Come and let us seek together Springtime lore of daffodils, Giving to the golden weather Greeting on the sun-warm hills.”

Source: Delphi Complete Works of L. M. Montgomery (Illustrated)

“the mighty main sea is the begetter of clouds and winds and rivers.”

Water Sea Wind Rivers Clouds

Author:Anaximenes of Miletus

“It's so graceful to be blown by the wind, to go where the wind takes you. Just drifting over beautiful rivers in a balloon is perfect.”

Beautiful Perfect Adventure Wind Rivers Drifting Balloons Beautiful River

Author:Richard Branson

“Winds flap the sail, tortoise and snake are silent, a great plan looms. A bridge will fly over this moat dug by heaven and be a road from north to south. We will make a stone wall against the upper river to the west and hold back steamy clouds and rain of Wu peaks. Over tall chasms will be a calm lake, and if the goddess of these mountains is not dead she will marvel at the changed world.”

Ifs World Heaven Silence Plans Changed Wind Wall Mountain Rain Rivers Stones Silent West South Calm Clouds Bridges Lakes Tall Goddess Sail Snakes Chasms Tortoises Moats Stone Walls

Book:The Poems of Mao Zedong

Source: The Poems of Mao Zedong

“A flock of sheep that leisurely pass by One after one; the sound of rain, and bees Murmuring; the fall of rivers, winds and seas, Smooth fields, white sheets of water, and pure sky - I've thought of all by turns, and still I lie Sleepless.”

Source: Poems of William Wordsworth. Selected and edited by Robert Aris Willmott ... Illustrated with one hundred designs by Birket Foster, J. Wolf, and John Gilbert, engraved by the brothers Dalziel

“We knew it would rain, for the poplars showed The white of their leaves, the amber grain Shrunk in the wind,-and the lightning now Is tangled in tremulous skeins of rain.”

Water White Wind Rain Rivers Grain Lightning Tangled Amber Wind And Rain

Book:The Ballad of Babie Bell, and Other Poems

Source: The Ballad of Babie Bell, and Other Poems

“But when I came, alas, to wive, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, By swaggering could I never thrive, For the rain it raineth every day.”

Water Wind Rain Rivers Hey Thrive Alas

Author:William Shakespeare

“It is the sea that whitens the roof. The sea drifts through the winter air. It is the sea that the north wind makes. The sea is in the falling snow.”

Fall Water Air Sea Wind Rain Rivers Winter Snow Roof North Wind

Book:The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens

Source: The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens

“You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heath of life? The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light. If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and sea are one. For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?”