Rivers

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.

—Bible (Old Testament)

The king's heart is in the hand of the L, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

—Bible (Old Testament)

   Straight mine eye hath caught new pleasures Whilst the landscape round it measures, Russet lawns and fallows grey, Where the nibbling flocks do stray, Mountains on whose barren breast The labouring clouds do often rest; Meadows trim with daisies pied, Shallow brooks, and rivers wide.

—Milton,John

Come live with me and be my love, And we will all the pleasures prove That valleys, groves, hills, and fields, Woods, or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon the rocks, Seeing shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals. And I will make thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle. See Raleigh 677:98.

—Marlowe, Christopher

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we 98 wept, whenwe remembered Zion.We hanged ourharps uponthewillows inthemidst thereof.For therethey that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one ofthesongs of Zion.Howshall wesing theL'ssong in a strange land?

—Bible (Old Testament)

Morally, spiritually, we are fettered. What have we achieved in mowing down mountain ranges, harnessing the energy of mighty rivers, or moving whole populations about like chess pieces, if we ourselves remain the same restless, miserable, frustrated creatures we were before. To call such activity progress is utter delusion.

—Miller, Henry Valentine

Hills of the North, rejoice: Rivers and mountain-spring, Hark to the advent voice! Valleyand lowland, sing! Though absent long, your Lord is nigh, He judgement brings, and victory.

—Oakley, Charles Edward

The earth was made for Dombeyand Son to trade in, and thesunandmoonweremadetogivethemlight.Riversand seas were formed to float their ships; rainbowsgave them promise of fair weather; winds blew fororagainst their enterprises; stars and planets circled intheir orbits, to preserve inviolate a system of whichthey were the centre.

—Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam

Razors pain you Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp. Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give; Gas smells awful; You might as well live.

—Parker, Dorothy ne¤  e Rothschild

A country so precipitously convoluted that the rivers flowing through it look like the silver trails of inebriated slugs.

—James, CliveVivian Leopold

And a manshall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Riveris ran reid on spate with water broun, And burnis hurlis all their bankis doun.

—Douglas, Gavin

Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Upon those that step into the same rivers different and different waters flow. They scatter and gather, come together and flow away, approach and depart.

—Heraclitus   fl.500

The tendency nowadays to wander in wildernesses is delightful to see. Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains isgoing home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.

—Muir,John

  If I should die, thinkonly this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. There shall be In that rich dust a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam, A body of England's, breathing English air, Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

—Brooke, Rupert Chawner

You see how when rivers are swollen in winter those trees that yield to the flood retain their branches, but those that offer resistance perish, trunk and all.

—Sophocles