(defending his taste for alcohol)
I'm so holy that when I touch wine, it turns into water.
Anonymous
(Jacobite toast)
The King over the water.
Anonymous
(Jaws 2: film advertising copy)
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water.
Coleridge Samuel Taylor 1772-1834
‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'
Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
The very deep did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!
Yes, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.
Elstow Friar
(when threated with drawning by Henry VIII)
With thanks to God we know the way to heaven, to be as ready by water as by land, and therefore we care not which way we go.
Herbert George 1593-1633
A great ship asks deep water.
Hogg James 1770-1835
‘O'er the Water to Charlie'
We'll o'er the water, we'll o'er the sea,
We'll o'er the water to Charlie;
Come weel, come wo, we'll gather and go,
And live or die wi' Charlie.
Horace 65-8 BC
Epistles
No verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by drinkers of water.
Joyce James 1882-1941
Ulysses
When I makes tea I makes tea. And when I makes water I makes water ... Begob, ma'am, says Mrs Cahill, God send you don't make them in the one pot.
Keats John 1795-1821
Letter to Benjamin Bailey
I am in a temper that if I were under water I
would scarcely kick to come to the top.
Leonardo Da Vinci 1452-1519
Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses it purity and in cold weather
becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind.
Marlowe Christopher 1564-1593
Doctor Faustus
O soul, be changed into little water drops,
And fall into the ocean, ne'er be found:
My God, my God, look not so fierce on me.
Maxwell William
Happiness is the light on the water. The water is cold and dark and deep.
Ovid 43 BC-AD c.17
Epistulae Ex Ponto
Dripping water hollows out a stone, a ring is worn away by use.
Pindar 518-438 BC
Olympian Odes
Water is best. But gold shines like fire blazing in the
night, supreme of lordly wealth.
Proverbs and Sayings
Polish
Fish, to taste right, must swim three times - in water,
in butter and in wine.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
The Comedy of Errors
I to the world am like a drop of water
That in the ocean seeks another drop,
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Hamlet
Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
And therefore I forbid my tears; but yet
It is our trick, nature her custom holds,
Let shame say what it will.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Henry VIII
Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues
We write in water.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Macbeth
A little water clears us of this deed.
Shakespeare William 1564-1616
Richard II
Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm from an anointed king;
The breath of worldly men cannot depose
The deputy elected by the Lord.
Simon Paul
‘Bridge over Troubled Water'
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Talleyrand Charles Maurice de 1754-1838
(of Mme. de Staël)
She is such a good friend that she would throw all her acquaintances
into the water for the pleasure of fishing them out.
Wordsworth William 1770-1850
‘To Sleep'
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 have thought of all by turns, and yet do lie Sleepless!