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Inland Waters Biodiversity - Citations

(American Indian proverb)

The Romans realized, as have every civilized people since, that living in cities is impossible if the water supply is not reliably clean and fresh.
(Frank & Francis Chapelle, The Hidden Sea: Ground Water, Springs and Wells, 1997)

Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.
(Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1798)

(Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732)

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 A. Norse, in R.J. Hoage, ed., Animal Extinctions, 1985)

(Mostafa Tolba of Egypt, former head of the United Nations Environment Programme)

Filthy water cannot be washed.
(African Proverb)

We're all downstream.
(Ecologist's motto adopted by Margaret & Jim Drescher, Windhorse Farm, Nova Scotia)


  • United Nations
  • United Nations Environment Programme