For we needs must die, and are as WATER spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person
(II Samuel 14.14)

That which is now a horse, even with a thought
The rack dislimms, and makes it indistinct
As WATER is in WATER
(Skakespeare, Anthony and Cleopatra, Act 4, Scene 12, 1, 2)

[Charles] Sumner's mind had reached the calm of WATER which receives and reflects images without absorbing them; it contains nothing but itself.
(Henry Brooks Adams, The Eucation of Henry Adams, 1907)

By the shores of Gitchee Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis,
Dark behind it rose the forest,
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
Rose the firs with cones upon them;
Bright before it beat the water,
Beat the clear and sunny water,
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.
(Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha, 1855)

A little WATER clears us of this deed
(Skakespeare, Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2, 1.68)

Gutta cavat lapidem (Dripping water hollows out a stone)
(Ovid, Epistulae Ex Ponto, Book 3, no. 10, 1. 5)

Here lies one whose name was writ in WATER
(John Keats, Epitaph for himself, in Richard Monkton Milnes Life, Letters and Literary Remains of John Keats, 1848, vol. 2)

The many-voiced song of the river echoed softly. Siddhartha looked into the river and saw many pictures in the flowing water. The river's voice was sorrowful. It sang with yearning and sadness, flowing towards its goal...Siddhartha...was now listening intently...to this song of a thousand voices...then the great song of a thousand voices consisted of one word: Om -- perfection... From that hour Siddhartha ceased to fight against his destiny
(Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha, 1951)