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Water is the very essence of life

• Life in us is like the water in a river. Henry David Thoreau
• Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. H. Auden
• Water is everywhere and in all living things – we cannot be separated from water. No water, no life.  Water comes in many forms – liquid, vapor, ice, snow, fog, rain, hail.  But no matter the form, it’s still water. Robert Fulghum
• We Love Water. We Thank Water.  We Respect Water.  We Are All Water.  We Are All One.  Masaru Emoto
• We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one. Jacques Yves Cousteau
• Water is life’s mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
• Water is the mother of the vine, The nurse and fountain of fecundity, The adorner and refresher of the world. Charles Mackay
• The Upholder of the Cycles which supports the whole of Life, is water. In every drop of water dwells the Godhead, whom we all serve; there also dwells Life, the Soul of the First substance – Water – whose boundaries and banks are the capillaries that guide it and in which it circulates. More energy is encapsulated in every drop of good spring water than an average- sized PowerStation is presently able to produce. Viktor Schauberger
• Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life. John Updike
• Without water, our planet would be one of the billions of lifeless rocks floating endlessly in the vastness of the inky-black void. Fabien Cousteau
• Honor the river, stream, lake, or well that makes possible your life, your town, or your city. Gail Thomas, Ph.D.
• Life lessons from water,  The ocean,  Lakes,  Rivers,  Nature

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Water is the driving force of nature

• Water is the driving force in nature. Leonardo da Vinci
• Nature

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Water is the sculptor of nature

• As sculptor Nature works on cliffs and canyon walls carving figures and towers, turrets and castles. Rock erosion is her chisel; rushing, pounding waters are her hammers.  Wilferd A. Peterson
• Dripping water wears away a stone. Margaret Atwood
• Stones are hollowed out by the constant dropping of water. Ovid

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Water is magic

• If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. Loren Eiseley
• All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Toni Morrison
• Water is the one substance from which the earth can conceal nothing; it sucks out its innermost secrets and brings them to our very lips. Jean Giraudoux
• Magic

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Water is wisdom

• A man of wisdom delights in water. Confucius
• If you’ re not beside a real river, close your eyes, and sit down beside an imaginary one, a river where you feel comfortable and safe. Know that the water has wisdom, in its motion through the world, as much wisdom as any of us have. Picture yourself as the water. We are liquid; we innately share water’s wisdom. Eric Alan
• Water is the only drink for a wise man. Henry David Thoreau
• Wisdom

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Water exhilarates and renews us

• To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter … to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring—these are some of the rewards of the simple life. John Burroughs
• The birds and animals, trees and grasses, rocks, water and wind are our allies. They waken our senses, rouse our passions, renew our spirits and fill us with vision, courage, and joy. David Gaines

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Water soothes us

• Nature tops the list of potent tranquilizers and stress reducers. The mere sound of moving water has been shown to lower blood pressure. Patch Adams

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Water can make music

• There is however, a true music of nature; the song of the birds, the whisper of leaves, the ripple of waters upon a sandy shore, the wail of wind or sea. Lubbock
• Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass unter the trees on a spring day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. John Lubbock
• The color of the mountains is Buddha’s body; the sound of running water is his great speech. Dogen
• 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
• Music

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We can see and hear God in water

• I, the fiery life of divine essence, am aflame beyond the beauty of the meadows, I gleam in the waters, and I burn in the sun, moon, and stars….I awaken everything to life. Ildergard of Bingen
• Something of God flows into us from the blue of the sky, the taste of honey, the delicious embrace of water whether cold or hot, and even from sleep itself. C. S. Lewis
• I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan. Zitkala-As
• God

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Water adds immense beauty to any natural landscape

• Water, whether still or in motion, has so great an attraction for the lover of nature, that the most beautiful landscape seems scarcely complete without it. There are no effects so fascinating as those produced by the reflections in nature’s living mirror, with their delicacy of form, ever fleeting and changing, and their subtle combinations of colour.  Montagu Pollock
• Beauty

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Water has an immensely variable nature

• Water is sometimes sharp and sometimes strong, sometimes acid and sometimes bitter, sometimes sweet and sometimes thick or thin, sometimes it is seen bringing hurt or pestilence, sometime health-giving, sometimes poisonous. It suffers change into as many natures as are the different places through which it passes. And as the mirror changes with the colour of its subject, so it alters with the nature of the place, becoming noisome, laxative, astringent, sulphurous, salty, incarnadined, mournful, raging, angry, red, yellow, green, black, blue, greasy, fat or slim. Sometimes it starts a conflagration, sometimes it extinguishes one; is warm and is cold, carries away or sets down, hollows out or builds up, tears or establishes, fills or empties, raises itself or burrows down, speeds or is still; is the cause at times of life or death, or increase or privation, nourishes at times and at others does the contrary; at times has a tang, at times is without savor, sometimes submerging the valleys with great floods. In time and with water, everything changes. Leonardo da Vinci

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We are drawn to water, especially water that flows

• We are never far from the lilt and swirl of living water. Whether to fish or swim or paddle, of only to stand and gaze, to glance as we cross a bridge, all of us are drawn to rivers, all of us happily submit to their spell. We need their familiar mystery. We need their fluent lives interflowing with our own. John Daniel
• 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 called. The call is the thundering rumble of distant rapids, the intimate roar of white water . . . a primeval summons to primordial values. John Craighead
• Look! A trickle of water running through some dirt! I’d say our afternoon just got booked solid! Bill Watterson
• Rivers are magnets for the imagination, for conscious pondering and subconscious dreams, thrills, fears. People stare into the moving water, captivated, as they are when gazing into a fire. What is it that draws and holds us? The rivers’ reflections of our lives and experiences are endless. Tim Palmer

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Reflect by the water

• What are the best times to reflect on the course of your life? Whenever you are near water, such as the ocean, a quiet pond, or a small stream. Bodies of water, particularly if they are moving, help to stimulate your creative thought process. Jeff Davidson

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Rivers are water – but so much more

• Any river is really the summation of the whole valley. To think of it as nothing but water is to ignore the greater part. Hal Borland
• I have never seen a river that I could not love. Moving water . . . has a fascinating vitality. It has power and grace and associations. It has a thousand colors and a thousand shapes, yet it follows laws so definite that the tiniest streamlet is an exact replica of a great river. Roderick Haig-Brown
• The river is the center of the land, the place where the waters, and much more, come together. Here is the home of wildlife, the route of explorers, and recreation paradise. . . . Only fragments of our inheritance remain unexploited, but these streams are more valuable than ever. Tim Palmer
• 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 Noel
• How could drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet the river flows on.  Antoine de Saint- Exupery
• Rivers

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Living in cities, we have lost our connection with water

• For many of us, water simply flows from a faucet, and we think little about it beyond this point of contact. We have lost a sense of respect for the wild river, for the complex workings of a wetland, for the intricate web of life that water supports. Sandra Postel

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We are poisoning our waters

• Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans. Jacques-Yves Cousteau
• In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference. Rachel Carson

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We need to think of water as a living organism

• It is a fascinating and provocative thought that a body of water deserves to be considered as an organism in its own right. Lyall Watson

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We need to protect the earth’s water

• The forests are dying, the rivers are dying, and we are called to act. To return Earth to harmony is to restore the harmonious principles within ourselves and to act as responsible caretakers – to save the forests and the waters for future generations.   Dhyani Ywahoo
• When we save a river, we save a major part of an ecosystem, and we save ourselves as well because of our dependence—physical, economic, spiritual—on the water and its community of life. Tim Palmer
• We never know the worth of water ’til the well is dry. Thomas Fuller
• Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man. Stuart Udall
• 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, Hydrologist
• Water is precious; it is the very source of life and a free gift from the Creator. Desmond M. Tutu
• Care for the environment

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We need to keep the water clean

• Can we afford clean water? Can we afford rivers and lakes and streams and oceans which continue to make possible life on this planet? Can we afford life itself? Those questions were never asked as we destroyed the waters of our nation, and they deserve no answers as we finally move to restore and renew them. These questions answer themselves. — (Senator Ed Muskie of Maine
• Filthy water cannot be washed. African Proverb
• Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you. John Muir
• By polluting clear water with slime you will never find good drinking water. Aeschylus

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We need to save water

• There are tiny choices that everyone can make that profoundly affect our collective water use. Like not having the tap on while brushing your teeth, not starting your shower ten minutes in advance, not doing laundry until you have a full load. In this particular issue, education really is power. Kristen Bell

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Between earth and earth’s atmosphere, the amount of water remains constant

• Between earth and earth’s atmosphere, the amount of water remains constant; there is never a drop more, never a drop less. This is a story of circular infinity, of a planet birthing itself. Linda Hogan
• In every glass of water we drink, some of the water has already passed through fishes, trees, bacteria, worms in the soil, and many other organisms, including people . . . Living systems cleanse water and make it fit, among other things, for human consumption. Elliot Norse
• All the water that will ever be is, right now. National Geographic

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The watery habitats on earth are the most precious

• The marsh, to him who enters it in a receptive mood, holds, besides mosquitoes and stagnation, melody, the mystery of unknown waters, and the sweetness of Nature undisturbed by man. Charles William Beebe
• Wetlands have a poor public image. . . . Yet they are among the earth’s greatest natural assets . . . mankind’s waterlogged wealth. Edward Maltby

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Water is the most abundant metaphor on earth and can teach us much

• Water is everything: love, life, religion… even God. Water is the most abundant metaphor on earth.  Pam Houston
• It is life, I think, to watch the water. A man can learn so many things. Nicholas Sparks
• Water is life’s mater and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water. Albert Szent- Gyorgyi
• Contemplate the workings of this world. Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks. Everything–even mountains, rivers, plants and trees–should be your teacher.  Morihei Ueshiba
• We call upon the waters that rim the earth, horizon to horizon, that flow in our rivers and streams, that fall upon our gardens and fields, and we ask that they teach us and show us the way. Chinook Blessing Litany
• Metaphors to live by

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Little drops of water, by continually falling, have mighty power

• Prayer is like water – something you can’t imagine has the strength or power to do any good, and yet give it time and it can change the lay of the land. Jodi Picoult
• The weakest living creature, by concentrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish good results while the strongest, by dispersing his effort over many chores, may fail to accomplish anything. Drops of water, by continually falling, hone their passage through the hardest of rocks but the hasty torrent rushes over it with hideous uproar and leaves no trace behind. Og Mandino
• Dripping water wears away a stone. Margaret Atwood
• Stones are hollowed out by the constant dropping of water. Ovid
• Little by little a person becomes evil, as a water pot is filled by drops of water. Little by little a person becomes good, as a water pot is filled by drops of water.  Buddha
• Little drops of water, little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land. So the little minutes, humble though they be, Make the mighty ages of eternity. Julia A. Fletcher Carney
• Water is the driving force in nature. Leonardo da Vinci
• Not hammer-strokes, but dance of the water, sings the pebbles into perfection. Rabindranath Tagore

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Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it

• Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it. So the flexible overcome the adamant, the yielding overcome the forceful. Lao Tzu
• Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it. Lao Tzu
• 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. Lao Tzu
• In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it. Lao Tzu
• In the struggle between the stone and water, in time, the water wins. Japanese Proverb

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Water can teach us about desire

• Waters from many rivers continually flow into the ocean but the ocean never overfills. In a like manner, desires and attachments constantly flow into the mind of the Illuminated One, but he or she , like the ocean in its deepest depths, is totally still and never disturbed. Bhagavad Gita
• We cannot be free of nagging desires through suppression. This is like trying to keep a rubber boat beneath the water. But we remove compulsive desires altogether by understanding their nature. Vernon Howard
• But when one masters this wretched desire, which is so hard to overcome, then one’s sorrows just drop off, like a drop of water off a lotus. Buddha
• Desire

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Water can teach us much about relationships

• People who have lost relationships often wonder why they can’t just let it be “water under the bridge.” It is water under the bridge – the trouble is we do not live on the bridge but in the river of life with its many twists and turns. Grant Fairley
• Anyone who tries to imprison love will cut off the spring that feeds it, and the trapped water will grow stagnant and rank. Paulo Coelho
• Friendship that flows from the heart cannot be frozen by adversity, as the water that flows from the spring cannot congeal in winter. James Fenimore Cooper
• It is fully legitimate to nurture yourself before reaching out to others. You can’t give someone a drink of water from an empty glass.  Take good care of yourself and you’ll gain genuine insight into how to care for others.  Stephen Covey
• Friendship and money: oil and water. Mario Puzo
• If you must speak ill of another, do not speak it, write it in the sand near the water’s edge. Napoleon Hill
• For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man’s life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self. R. Ambedkar
• All relationships will die if they aren’t nurtured. Just as a flower will die if it’s not watered. Because love is demonstration, not declaration.  Patti LaBelle
• Principles for healthy relationships

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More things we can learn from water

• Don’t throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new one holds water. Swedish Proverb
• It is wise to bring some water, when one goes out to look for water. Arab Proverb
• If you wish to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water. Bulgarian Proverb
• Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet. African Proverb
• We cannot cross the sea merely by staring at the water. Rabindranath Tagore
• It is wretched business to be digging a well just as thirst is mastering you. Titus Maccius Plautus
• Wounds are like water set to boil – they heal best left unwatched… Gabrielle Zevin
• You don’t drown by falling in the water; you drown by staying there. Edwin Louis Cole
• The mill cannot grind with the water that is past. George Herbert
• When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat. Nelson Mandela
• You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. Rabindranath Tagore
• People say that if you find water rising up to your ankle, that’s the time to do something about it, not when it’s around your neck. Chinua Achebe

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Like water, be flexible and adaptable

• The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher. Chinese Proverb
• Thus, flexibility, as displayed by water, is a sign of life. Rigidity, its opposite, is an indicator of death. Anthony Lawlor
• Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, 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
• A wise man adapts himself to circumstances as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it.
• Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does. Margaret Atwood
• Adaptability,  Flexibility

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Like water, be patient

• There is no rushing a river. When you go there, you go at the pace of the water and that pace ties you into a flow that is older than life on this planet. Acceptance of that pace, even for a day, changes us, reminds us of other rhythms beyond the sound of our own heartbeats. Jeff Rennicke
• Patience

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Like water, be formless and shapeless

• Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, 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

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Like water, flow around obstacles

• He sometimes behaves like water, flowing around the obstacles he encounters. Paulo Coelho
• If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does. Margaret Atwood
• Water its living strength first shows, when obstacles its course oppose. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Taking on a free-flowing attitude allows us to be like water. Water is the most powerful substance, able to wear away the hardest of obstacles and to pass through seemingly impassable places. Amanda Harvey
• Look at the stream, there are rocks in its way. Does it slam into them out of frustration? It simply flows over and around them and moves on! Be like the water and you will know what harmony is. Zen Story
• Like water, be both gentle and strong
• Like water, be gentle and strong. Be gentle enough to follow the natural paths of the earth, and strong enough to rise up and reshape the world. Brenda Peterson
• Water its living strength first shows, When obstacles its course oppose. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Obstacles

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Like water, let things flow freely in your life …

• Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on. Louis L’Amour
• Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness. Steve Maraboli
• Don’t be ashamed to weep; ’tis right to grieve. Tears are only water, and flowers, trees, and fruit cannot grow without water. Brian Jacques
• Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water. Antoine Rivarol
• Let your tears come. Let them water your soul. Eileen Mayhew
• Tears are God’s gift to us. Our holy water.  They heal us as they flow.  Rita Schiano
• The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea. Isak Dinesen
• If you pump casually, you will pump forever. Pump hard to begin with and keep it up until you get that water flowing. Then a great deal will happen. Zig Ziglar
• Friendship that flows from the heart cannot be frozen by adversity, as the water that flows from the spring cannot congeal in winter. James Fenimore Cooper
• When you dig a well, there’s no sign of water until you reach it, only rocks and dirt to move out of the way. You have removed enough; soon the pure water will flow, said Buddha. Deepak Chopra
• So let the mind flow like water. Face life with a calm and quiet mind and everything in life will be calm and quiet. Thich Thien- An
• If you dam a river it stagnates. Running water is beautiful water. So be a channel. English Proverb
• Go with the flow

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… or else they will stagnate

• Anyone who tries to imprison love will cut off the spring that feeds it, and the trapped water will grow stagnant and rank. Paulo Coelho
• Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation … even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind. Leonardo da Vinci
• The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind. William Blake
• Anger is like flowing water; there’s nothing wrong with it as long as you let it flow. Hate is like stagnant water; anger that you denied yourself the freedom to feel, the freedom to flow; water that you gathered in one place and left to forget. Stagnant water becomes dirty, stinky, disease-ridden, poisonous, deadly; that is your hate. On flowing water travels little paper boats; paper boats of forgiveness. Allow yourself to feel anger, allow your waters to flow, along with all the paper boats of forgiveness. Be human. JoyBell C.
• If you dam a river, it stagnates. Running water is beautiful water.  English proverb
• A man’s life may stagnate as literally as water may stagnate, and just as motion and direction are the remedy for one, so purpose and activity are the remedy for the other. John Burroughs

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Life is water and we must flow with its current

• Life is water, and we tend to push too hard, thrash about, force things, struggle. Instead, learn to float, learn to allow things to become effortless. Leo Babauta
• Everything in the universe flows. You can’t get ahold of water by clutching it. Let your hand relax and you can experience it. Wayne Dyer
• I asked an endurance swimmer, “How is it possible for you to swim for twenty hours? What kind of mental attitude do you have?” She said, “I believe that the water is a friend. It wants to help me. It does not fight against me and I do not fight against it. We are working together.” I often think of that when I am in the ‘swim’ of life. The waves and currents and the tides hit us all at times, and it is not always easy to say, “The water is friendly.” It requires an act of faith, a volitional act; it means work, but most of all it requires a will to believe. the more we use this will, the more it becomes a part of us and the more natural becomes its application. Marcus Bach
• To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float. Alan Watts
• Always be like a water. Float in the times of pain or dance like waves along the wind which touches its surface. Santosh Kalwar

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Create a sense of purpose to give your life a forceful current

• A being without an aim in life, or not possessing the requisite concentration of purpose to assist him in resisting temptation, is like a cork floating upon the water, driven hither and thither by every wind that blows. Karl G. Maeser
• A man’s life may stagnate as literally as water may stagnate, and just as motion and direction are the remedy for one, so purpose and activity are the remedy for the other. John Burroughs
• Purpose

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When you try too hard, you sink.  When you relax, you float

• When you try to stay on the surface of the water, you sink; but when you try to sink, you float. Zen Proverb
• To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float. Alan Watts

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Attain a mind like still water through the practice of stillness and meditation …

• Once you have been in deep water, your experience of going into shallow water is never the same. Swami Premodaya
• Pour some water into a tub and stir it up. Now try as hard as you can to calm the water with your hands; you will succeed in agitating it further.  Let it stand undisturbed a while, and it will calm down by itself.  The human brain works much the same way.  Koichi Tohei
• When your consciousness has become ripe in true zazen-pure like clear water, like a serene mountain lake, not moved by any wind-then anything may serve as a medium for realization. Matsuo Basho
• Balance is the perfect state of still water. Let that be our model.  It remains quiet within and is not disturbed on the surface. Confucius
• In karate there is an image that’s used to define the position of perfect readiness: “mind like water.” Imagine throwing a pebble into a still pond. How does the water respond? The answer is, totally appropriately to the force and mass of the input; then it returns to calm. It doesn’t overreact or underreact. David Allen
• Waters from many rivers continually flow into the ocean but the ocean never overfills. In a like manner, desires and attachments constantly flow into the mind of the Illuminated One, but he or she, like the ocean in its deepest depths, is totally still and never disturbed. Bhagavad Gita
• Do not keep agitating the waters of your mind. Do not hold what you do, dropping it over and over into the clear waters of your mind endlessly making ripples. Let go of what you do.  Let it go like a pebble dropping, sinking to the bottom of the lake.  If you do not chase it, if you do not plunge in after it, the ripples of it’s passing will once again return to stillness.  Sheng Zhen
• When you sit in silence long enough, you learn that silence has a motion. It glides over you without shape or form, exactly like water. Its color is silver. And silence has a sound you hear only after hours of wading inside it. The sound is soft, like flute notes rising up, like the words of glass speaking. Then there comes a point when you must shatter the blindness of its words, the blindness of its light. Anne Spollen
• 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
• One can not reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others. Lao Tzu
• Meditation,  Stillness

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… for when your mind is still like water, you can see a clear, undistorted reflection

• Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world. Hans Margolius
• The best reflections are there when the wind, water and you are still. Peg Huxtable
• We cannot see our reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see. Taoist Proverb
• Like water which can clearly mirror the sky and the trees only so long as its surface is undisturbed, the mind can only reflect the true image of the Self when it is tranquil and wholly relaxed. Indra Devi
• One cannot reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others. Lao Tzu
• Only let the moving waters calm down, and the sun and moon will be reflected on the surface of your being. Rumi
• Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world. Hans Margolius
• The moon is one, but on agitated water it produces many reflections. Similarly, ultimate reality is one, yet it appears to be many in a mind agitated by thoughts. Maharamayana
• Excitement is the drunkenness of the spirits. Only calm waters reflect heaven in their bosom. Marguerite de Valois
• On the still calm waters of surrender the reflections of clarity appear. Bryant McGill
• According to Democritus, truth lies at the bottom of a well, the water of which serves as a mirror in which objects may be reflected. I have heard, however, that some philosophers, in seeking for truth, to pay homage to her, have seen their own image and adored it instead. Charles Francis Richter
• When water is still like a mirror it can behold the Moon. Rumi

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When the mud settles and the water is clear, you can see clearly

• Our minds are like a large vase of water with sand in it that has been stirred up. After some time of stillness, the sand settles, clarifying the water and allowing us to see. The resulting clarity, which is beyond concept, is wisdom beyond concept. M. Gunder
• Do you have the patience to wait till your mind settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?    Lao Tzu
• Muddy water, let stand becomes clear. Lao Tzu

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Still waters run deep

• A great ship asks deep water. George Herbert
• Once you have been in deep water, your experience of going into shallow water is never the same. Swami Premodaya
• Where the stream runneth smoothest, the water is deepest. John Lyly
• Learn this from water: loud splashes the brook but the oceans depth are calm. Gautama Buddha
• The rising world of waters dark and deep. John Milton
• The deeper the waters are, the more still they run. Korean Proverb
• It is the calm and silent water that drowns a man. Ghanaian Proverb
• Beware of silent dogs and still waters. Portuguese Proverb

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As if in water, immerse yourself fully in life to experience it properly

• We can’t feel the wetness of water by looking at photographs of water; we must immerse ourselves in it. Michael Bernard Beckwith
• A drop of water has the tastes of the water of the seven seas: there is no need to experience all the ways of worldly life. The reflections of the moon on one thousand rivers are from the same moon: the mind must be full of light. Hung Tzu Ch’eng

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Water the important things in your life, in the right amounts at the right time …

• All relationships will die if they aren’t nurtured. Just as a flower will die if it’s not watered. Because love is demonstration, not declaration.  Patti LaBelle
• Attention is like sunlight and water for a plant. What we pay attention to will grow. Thich Nhat Hanh
• Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream. Lao Tzu
• For a plant to grow well, you have to water it a little every day. If you just pour a bucket of water on it once a month, it will most likely die between waterings. The same applies to meditation. Matthieu Ricard
• It is fully legitimate to nurture yourself before reaching out to others. You can’t give someone a drink of water from an empty glass.  Take good care of yourself and you’ll gain genuine insight into how to care for others.  Stephen Covey
• It’s but little good you’ll do a-watering the last year’s crops. George Eliot
• The grass is always greener where you water it.
• There is a little plant called reverence in the corner of my soul’s garden, which I love to have watered once a week. Oliver Wendell Holmes
• While intent is the seed of manifestation, action is the water that nourishes the seed. Your actions must reflect your goals in order to achieve true success. Steve Maraboli
• In our consciousness, there are many negative seeds and also many positive seeds. The practice is to avoid watering the negative seeds, and to identify and water the positive seeds every day. Thich Nhat Hanh
• The only thing that endures over time is the ‘Law of the Farm.’ You must prepare the ground, plant the seed, cultivate, and water if you expect to reap the harvest. Stephen Covey

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… but don’t water the weeds in your life

• Your life is your garden, your thoughts are the seeds. If your life isn’t awesome, you’ve been watering the weeds.  Terry Prince
• Don’t water your weeds. Harvey Mackay

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Know that who you are and what you do creates ripples across the pool of life

• I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. Mother Teresa

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In particular, acts of kindness and giving can ripple far and wide

• I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. Mother Teresa
• The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground, secretly making the ground green. Thomas Carlyle
• Kindness

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Live life as a fish swims in water

• …I keep looking for one more teacher, only to find that fish learn from the water and birds learn from the sky. Mark Nepo
• Life, according to Zen, ought to be lived as a bird flies through the air, or as a fish swims in the water. T. Suzuki
• A little fish, overhearing a fisherman remark that water is essential to life, became panicky and swam desperately in search of water, until it reached the ocean and asked a wise old fish where it could find water. The old timer laughed and said, “Why, you’ve never been out of water. You’ve had water all the time, but you didn’t know it.” So it is with faith; you have it, it is with you. You simply have to realize and use it and it will grow.
• Looking for yourself is like a thirsty fish looking for water. Deepak Chopra

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Quench your thirst for there is water all around you …

• Look at you, screaming you are thirsty and are dying in the desert when all around you is nothing but water! Kabir
• Love is the only water that can quench the heart’s thirst. David Kam
• A good teacher will lead the horse to water, an excellent teacher will make the horse thirsty first. Mario Cortes
• Don’t drink by the water’s edge. Throw yourself in! Become the water. Only then will your thirst end. Jeanette Berson
• You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
• A lifetime without Love is of no account. Love is the Water of Life.  Drink it down with heart and soul! Rumi

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… but remember that an over-indulgence of anything, even pure water, can intoxicate

• Follow the wisdom provided by nature. Everything in moderation – sunlight, water, nutrients. Too much of a good thing will topple your structure. You can’t harvest what you don’t sow. So plant your desires, gently nurture them, and they will be rewarded with abundance. Vivian Elisabeth Glyck
• An over-indulgence of anything, even something as pure as water, can intoxicate. Criss Jami
• Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. Mark Twain

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Never try to quench your thirst with salt water

• Revenge has no more quenching effect on emotions than salt water has on thirst. Walter Weckler
• Samsaric pleasures are like salt water, the more we indulge, the more we crave. Geshe Sonam Rinchen
• Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; the same is true of fame. Arthur Schopenhauer
• Kissing is like drinking salted water, you drink and your thirst increases. Chinese Proverb
• The attempt to satisfy greed is like drinking salty water when thirsty. When lost in greed we look outward rather than inward for satisfaction, yet we never find enough to fill the emptiness we wish to escape. The real hunger we feel is for knowledge of our true nature. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

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Know yourself to be a drop of water in the ocean.  We are all one.

• 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
• As the smallest drop of water detached from the ocean contains all the qualities of the ocean, so man, detached in consciousness from the Infinite, contains within him its likeness; and as the drop of water must, by the law of its nature, ultimately find its way back to the ocean and lose itself in its silent depths, so must man, by the unfailing law of his nature, at last return to his source, and lose himself in the great ocean of the Infinite. James Allen
• 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
• How could drops of water know themselves to be a river? Yet the river flows on.  Antoine de Saint- Exupery
• Oneness,  The ocean

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God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color.

• 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
• God is the color of water. Water doesn’t have a color. James McBride
• If you wish to know the taste of seawater and you live on an island, set out towards the coast and keep going. When you reach the seashore all you then need to do is to bend down, put the finger into the water, and then into the mouth and you will know the taste of all the seven seas. So it is with freedom, it has but one single taste. Rinzai Zen Master Hakuin
• Colour

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Here are more spiritual metaphors using water

• Give up your selfishness, and you shall find peace; like water mingling with water, you shall merge in absorption. Sri Guru Granth Sahib
• We are all bodies of water, guarding the mystery of our depths, but some of us have more to guard than others. Deborah Smith
• You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you. Heraclitus of Ephesus
• As an irrigator guides water to his fields, as an archer aims an arrow, as a carpenter carves wood, the wise shape their lives. Buddha
• Faith is like water in a river bed. The more you have, the smoother it flows over the rocks.
• Like a magician’s illusions, dreams and a moon reflected in water, all beings and their environments are empty of inherent existence. Though not solidly existent, all these appear, like water bubbles coming forth in water. Gung Tang
• The true practice of meditation is to sit as if you were drinking water when you are thirsty. Shunryu Suzuki
• As a man can drink water from any side of a full tank, so the skilled theologian can wrest from any scripture that which will serve his purpose. Bhagavad Gita
• Water which is too pure has no fish. Ts’ai Ken T’an
• When time comes for us to again rejoin the infinite stream of water flowing to and from the great timeless ocean, our little droplet of soulful water will once again flow with the endless stream. William Marks
• 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
• A drop of water has the tastes of the water of the seven seas: there is no need to experience all the ways of worldly life. The reflections of the moon on one thousand rivers are from the same moon: the mind must be full of light. Hung Tzu Ch’eng
• Let yourself be open and life will be easier. A spoon of salt in a glass of water makes the water undrinkable. A spoon of salt in a lake is almost unnoticed. Buddha
• Man is like the foam of the sea, that floats upon the surface of the water. When the wind blows, it vanishes, as if it had never been. Thus are our lives blown away by Death. Kahlil Gibran

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As water carves stone, your thoughts shape your character

• Even as water carves monuments of stone, so do our thoughts shape our character. Hugh B. Brown
• Character

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Small leaks of negativity can sink a large ship

• Avoid destructive thinking. Improper negative thoughts sink people. A ship can sail around the world many, many times, but just let enough water get into the ship and it will sink. Just so with the human mind. Let enough negative thoughts or improper thoughts get into the human mind and the person sinks just like a ship. Alfred Montapert
• An entire sea of water can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Similarly, the negativity of the world can’t put you down unless you allow it to get inside you. Goi Nasu
• Negativity

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Sometimes it takes hot water to find out how strong you are

• A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water. Eleanor Roosevelt
• We are like tea bags – we don’t know our own strength until we’re in hot water. Jutta Baum Busche
• I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean. Gilbert Chesterton

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Life analogies drawn from the mixing of water and oil

• You should respect each other and refrain from disputes; you should not, like water and oil, repel each other, but should, like milk and water, mingle together. Buddha
• Truth indeed rather alleviates than hurts, and will always bear up against falsehood, as oil does above water. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

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Here are more metaphors using water

• Absence in love is like water upon fire; a little quickens, but much extinguishes it. Hannah More
• Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container. Wallace Stevens
• A lifetime without Love is of no account. Love is the Water of Life.  Drink it down with heart and soul! Rumi
• Life in us is like the water in a river. Henry David Thoreau
• 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
• Faith is like water in a river bed. The more you have, the smoother it flows over the rocks.
• Enough shovels of earth – a mountain. Enough pails of water – a river. Chinese Proverbs
• The best man is like water. Water is good; it benefits all things and does not compete with them. It dwells in lowly places that all disdain. This is why it is so near to Tao. Lao Tzu

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• A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you’re in deep water. Sidney Goff
• A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water. Carl Reiner
• A sieve may not hold water but it will hold another sieve. Jackie Vernon
• A victim of the use of water as a beverage. Sam Houston
• A woman is like a tea bag you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water. Eleanor Roosevelt
• Aground: When a boat makes the discovery that all water has land under it.
• Bay: A body of water surrounded by restaurants.
• Being a Scotsman I am naturally opposed to water in its undiluted state. Alister MacKenzie
• Beware my friend you are skating on hot water.
• Blood is thicker than water but it makes lousy lemonade! Alfred E. Neuman
• Blood may be thicker than water, but it’s certainly not as thick as ketchup. Nor does it go as well with French fries. Jarod Kintz
• Boat: A hole in the water surrounded by wood into which one pours money.
• Bread and water can so easily be toast and tea.
• Confucius say best way to cure water on the brain is with a tap on the head.   Confucius
• Confucius say tears are the hydraulic force by which masculine will power is defeated by feminine water power. Confucius
• Describing her first day back in grade school after a long absence a teacher said it was like trying to hold 35 corks under water at the same time. Mark Twain
• Diplomacy: The art of fishing tranquilly in troubled waters.  Christopher Herold
• Do female frogs croak? Paul Lynde: If you hold their little heads under water. Paul Lynde
• Droughts are because God didn’t pay his water bill. Rod Schmidt
• During one of my treks through Afghanistan we lost our corkscrew. We were compelled to live on food and water for several days. C. Fields
• Ever wonder about those people who spend $2 apiece on those little bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backward.   George Carlin
• Family Swimming Pool: A small body of water completely surrounded by other people’s children.
• Fern: A plant that you’re supposed to water once a day and when you don’t it dies but if you do it dies anyway only not so soon.
• Fish, to taste right, must swim three times – in water, in butter and in wine. Polish Proverb
• Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed. Josh Billings
• Garden: Something that dies if you don’t water it and rots if you do.
• Gardening requires lots of water – most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson
• Getting married is a lot like getting into a tub of hot water. After you get used to it, it ain’t so hot. Minnie Pearl
• Golf balls are attracted to water as unerringly as the eye of a middle-aged man to a female bosom. Michael Green
• He’s so ugly, he’s gotta sneak up on a glass of water to get a drink.
• Here’s an idea for weight conscious hikers: dehydrated water.
• How come when you mix water and flour together you get glue and then you add eggs and sugar and you get cake? Where does the glue go?”   Rita Rudner
• How do you get holy water? Boil the hell out of it.
• Human beings are seventy percent water and with some the rest is collagen. Martin Mull
• Husbands are awkward things to deal with; even keeping them in hot water will not make them tender. Mary Buckley
• I bought a real expensive water filter but it works too good; I just get hydrogen. Mark Cohen
• I drank some boiling water because I wanted to whistle. Mitch Hedberg
• I got a waterbed but my husband stocked it with trout. Joan Rivers
• I got this powdered water – now I don’t know what to add. Steven Wright
• I just bought a small condo overlooking the water. The water is in a cup, one floor below my unit. Jarod Kintz
• I knew a guy who had a waterbed on a houseboat to cancel out the rocking. Wendy Liebman
• I like to fill my tub up with water then turn the shower on and act like I’m in a submarine that’s been hit. Steven Wright
• I love lying back, relaxing in the bath. Sometimes I even put water in it
• I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it. W. C. Fields
• I never drink water; that is the stuff that rusts pipes. WC Fields
• I never drink water. I’m afraid it will become habit-forming. W. C. Fields
• I wonder what goes through his mind when he sees us peeing in his water bowl. Penny Ward Moser
• I’m afraid of sharks – but only in a water situation.   Demetri Martin
• I’m an instant star, just add water. David Bowie
• I’m an instant star. Just add water and stir. David Bowie
• I’m drowning here and you’re describing the water! Jack Nicholson
• If his IQ slips any lower we’ll have to water him twice a day. Molly Ivins
• If I walked on water, people would say I couldn’t swim. John D. Turner
• If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: ‘President Can’t Swim. Lyndon B. Johnson
• If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, you can bet the water bill is higher. Debbie Macomber
• If you see me with a water bottle, there’s probably vodka in it
• If you use the electric vibrator near water you will come and go at the same time. Louise Sammons
• In an underdeveloped country, don’t drink the water; in a developed country, don’t breathe the air. Law of Nations
• In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is Freedom, in water there is bacteria. Benjamin Franklin
• Irish water polo team. They drowned four horses during the first chukka
• Is it possible to drink too much water? Paul Lynde: Yes, it’s called drowning! Paul Lynde
• It’s a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water. Franklin Jones
• Life is a razor, you are always in hot water or a scrape. John Updike
• Life without chocolate is like a beach without water.
• My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. Fortunately everybody drinks water. Mark Twain
• My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine. Fortunately, everybody drinks water. Mark Twain
• My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them. Mitch Hedberg
• My shoes are waterproof. If it rains, not a drop leaks out.
• My wife’s a water sign. I’m an earth sign. Together we make mud. Rodney Dangerfield
• Never test the depth of the water with both feet. Proverb
• Not all chemicals are bad; without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen for example there would be no way to make water a vital ingredient in beer. Dave Barry
• Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man – who has no gills. Ambrose Bierce
• Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water. C. Fields
• Opportunist: A person who, finding himself in hot water, decides he needs a bath anyway.
• Philosopher: One who, instead of crying over spilt milk, consoles himself with the thought that it was over four-fifths water.
• Promised some people this week that I would water their plants and take care of their animals while they want on vacation. Bad idea. The people are farmers.   Janine DiTullio
• Reading Proust is like bathing in someone else’s dirty water. Alexander Woollcott
• Real men do the boiling water bucket challenge…
• Romance often begins by a splashing waterfall and ends over a leaky sink.
• Say anything that you like about me except that I drink water. C. Fields
• She’s a tall drink of water.
• Since You Bought the Waterbed We’ve Slowly Drifted Apart
• Society, my dear, is like salt water, good to swim in but hard to swallow. Arthur Stringer
• Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water. C. Field
• Statistician: A person who believes that if you put your head in a furnace and your feet in a bucket of iced water, on the average you should feel reasonably comfortable.
• The best contraceptive is a glass of cold water: not before or after, but instead.
• The formula for water is H2O. Is the formula for an ice cube H2O squared? Lily Tomlin
• The four building blocks of the universe are fire water gravel and vinyl. Dave Barry
• The manager has personally passed all the water served here.
• The most efficient water power in the world – women’s tears. Wilson Mizner
• The sermon this morning: “Jesus Walks on the Water.” The sermon tonight: “Searching for Jesus.” Church Bulletin
• The trees taunt you; the sand mocks you; the water calls your name and they say golf is a quiet game.
• There are only three things women need in life: food, water, and compliments. Chris Rock
• There are two rules for drinking whisky: first never take whisky without water and second never take water without whisky. Charles ‘Chic’ Murray
• There’s something wrong with a mother who washes out a measuring cup with soap and water after she’s only measured water in it. Erma Bombeck
• Today a man knocked on my door and asked for a small donation towards the local swimming pool. I gave him a glass of water.
• Water taken in moderation cannot hurt anybody. Mark Twain
• We are treading on thin water.
• We have all passed a lot of water since then. Samuel Goldwyn
• We lived for days on nothing but food and water. C. Fields
• What did the egg say to the boiling water? It will take a minute for me to get hard. I just got laid by a chick
• When a body is immersed in water the telephone will ring. Archimedes’s Third Principle
• When a child is locked in the bathroom with water running and he says he’s doing nothing but the dog is barking, call 911. Erma Bombeck
• When my wife drives there’s always trouble. The other day she took the car. She came home. She told me “There’s water in the carburettor. asked her “Where’s the car?  She said “In a lake.”   Rodney Dangerfield
• When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water.
• When you’re in deep water it’s a good idea to keep your mouth shut! Alfred E. Neuman
• Work is the crabgrass of life but money is the water that keeps it green.
• You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him participate in synchronized diving. Cuthbert Soup
• You can’t trust water: Even a straight stick turns crooked in it. C. Fields
• You’ll get into hot water skating on thin ice!