The Water Keeper Quotes

“Love fills the empty places and flows from what was once the epicenter of the wound. And it’s the flowing that washes out the residue of the pain and makes us whole again. That’s the crazy miracle that is love. The more you pour out, the more you have to pour.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“Love is an amazing thing. It takes the brokenness, the scars, the pain, the darkness, everything, and makes it all new.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“We all lose our way. Sometimes it just takes somebody else to find us and bring us back. Remind us.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“But love is a difficult thing to kill. Actually, it’s the only thing in this universe or any other that you can’t kill. No weapon that has ever been made can put a dent in it. You might punch it, stab it, whip it, and hang it out to dry—you can even drive a spear through it, pierce its very heart. But all you’re going to get is blood and water, because love gives birth to love.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“That we were made to want and give love. That no matter how dark the night, midnight will pass. No darkness, no matter how dark, can hold back the second hand. Whether you like it or not, whether you want it or not, whether you hope it or not, whether you build a wall around your soul and cut out your eyes, wait a few hours and the sun will crack the skyline and the darkness will roll back like a scroll.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“Water heals itself. Every time. I like that. And if I’m being honest, maybe I need that.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“Love does that. It erases the pain. The darkness. The stuff that wants to hold our head under the water. Love reminds us who we are and who we were always meant to be. And there never has been nor ever will be anything that can kill it.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“...despite the mask we are all so good at wearing, we somehow manage to wake up every day hoping there's still a chance. That maybe, somehow, we can balance the debt ledger we carry in our hearts. That maybe God is offering a special that week and one good equals two bad. But then there are the lies that the memories whisper.'

Her tears were flowing freely now. She asked, 'What do they say?'

'They say we are alone. That bad choices and mistakes have drained the value out of us. And that we are not worth the cost of getting to us.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“Sometimes you have to show people your cards to keep them in the game.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“The term sinner grew out of an Old English archery term from the thirteenth century.” “What’s it mean?” “To miss the mark.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“In Eden, we walked in the cool of the evening with a Father who, by the very nature of the conversations and time spent together, answered our heart’s cry. It was the product of relationship. But out here, somewhere east or west of the Garden, beyond the shadow of the fiery walls, we have trouble hearing what He’s saying. And even when we do, we have trouble believing Him. So we wrestle and search. But regardless of where we search and how we try to answer the question or what we ingest, inject, or swallow to numb the nagging, only the Father gets to tell us who we are. Period.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“But despite the damage and the terror we inflicted on that spot of liquid earth, when I looked behind us, the water had come back together. It had healed. Farther on, there was no sign we’d ever been there.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“Sometimes we need to let others do for us what we can’t do for us.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“It was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever witnessed, and it took me back twenty-five years to a beach, a breeze, and the smell of a girl.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“Prior to the Civil War, tourists rode paddleboats up this very stretch of water to the Ocklawaha River, and finally into the Silver River, which led them to Silver Springs State Park—later to be made famous by photographer Bruce Mozert. The water was so clear they developed glass-bottom boats through which they could view the “mermaids.” The park became known as Florida’s Grand Canyon and was unparalleled in popularity until a man named Walt introduced a mouse named Mickey just outside of Orlando.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“Who am I? And more importantly, whose am I? In my life, in my strange line of work, I’d discovered that we as people can’t answer the first until someone else answers the second. It’s a function of design. Belonging comes before identity. Ownership births purpose. Someone speaks whose we are, and out of that we become who we are. It’s just the way the heart works.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“How his hands touch her says a lot about how his heart holds her.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“Evil is not interested in peace, and no amount of conversation will lessen its intent.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“You been on the water a long time?" …"
All my life."
"You love it, don't you?"
I stared into the water. Through it. Back to my beginning. "I do."
"Why?"
I waved my hand across the sea of rippled glass in front of us. "Thousands of knife-edged keels and spinning razor blades have cut this water right here. Sliced it into ten billion drops that somehow come back together again. No scar. Nothing can separate it. You could drop a bomb right here and within a few minutes, it'd look like nothing ever happened.
Water heals itself. Every time. I like that. And if I'm being honest, maybe I need that.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“You drink coffee?” She rubbed her eyes and attempted a smile. “People who don’t . . . aren’t people.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“it was his own wound surfacing when he told me, ‘We don’t love because people love us back. We love because we can. Because we were made to. Because it’s all we have. Because, at the end of the day, evil can take everything save one thing: your love. And when you come to realize that, that the only thing you really control in this life is your love, you’ll see, maybe for the first time, that we’re all just lost.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“Every heart is made to pour out. But sometimes we’re wounded and what we pour has soured and turned to poison. You get to choose. Poison or antidote? Life or death? You choose. So what’s it gonna be,”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“He sat back, shrugged, sipped, and said, ‘You can choose that if you want, or you can realize that we are all just broken, and sometimes no matter how hard we try and no matter what we do, people just don’t love us back.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“Love is like water. No matter how you cut it, slice it, beat it, or blow it into ten trillion droplets, give it a few minutes and it will all come back together again. Like nothing ever happened. No scar. No shrapnel. Just one giant body of water. Clear. Clean. Cool. Love fills the empty places and flows from what was once the epicenter of the wound. And it’s the flowing that washes out the residue of the pain and makes us whole again. That’s the crazy miracle that is love. The more you pour out, the more you have to pour. I don’t understand it, I just know it’s true.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“This was flesh. Period. Nothing more.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“If you really want to “see” Florida, you’d be hard-pressed to do better than Pennekamp. It’s an undersea wonderworld. Full of sergeant majors, jack crevalle, pompano, yellow grunts, mangrove snapper, smiling”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“You hang around people long enough and you learn their tells. Pain has a way of exiting the body, and most will let you know when it’s on its way out. Seldom do they know what their “tell” is telling you. Most often it’s silent. Sometimes it can be loud. However it comes out, it leaves a trail. Jittery fingers. Itchy skin. Headaches. Always tired. Always hungry. There are hundreds, I guess.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“...we wrestle and search. But regardless of where we search and how we try to answer the question or what we ingest, inject, or swallow to numb the nagging, only the Father gets to tell us who we are. Period.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper

“Belonging comes before identity. Ownership births purpose. Someone speaks whose we are, and out of that we become who we are. It's just the way the heart works.”
― Charles Martin, The Water Keeper