Lewis Pugh: Trending quotes (page 3)

“A massive turquoise glacier feeds into Magdalenefjord, with chunks of ice as big as buildings breaking off and landing in the water to float away as icebergs. As I swam past them, with my head in the water, I heard a tantalising sound: a snap-crackle-pop, just like Rice Krispies in milk. It was the sound of tiny air bubbles being released from the ice – air that had been trapped there as much as 3,000 years ago. To swim through this sound, I thought, is to swim in history.”

“No matter how tough my day has been, when I dive into the sea, the world seems perfect.”

“Sometimes the moments that challenge us the most, define us.”

“Nothing excited me more than opening up the atlas and seeing places and seas, imagining what they looked like and what kind of life the people had.”

“…when you swim from England to France you’ve got to leave your doubt on the beach at Dover.”

“My mind has to be ready. My body also has to be ready. But even more important, my heart has to be ready. What I mean by that is for the swims I do, I must have a burning reason.”

“My own feeling was that witnessing the explosion of an atomic bomb, and having to examine all the dead animals, had a profound effect on my father.”

“I look for swims where I can carry a powerful message. No message, no swim. I don’t get wet now unless it’s for a reason.”

“The essence of any great achievement is to believe in your purpose.”

“I could not believe what I was seeing: everywhere there were whale bones. Thousands of them stacked on top of each other. They rose from the seabed almost to the surface of the water. There were big bones. I could make out many of them: rib bones, jaw bones, vertebrae. In some places they were piled so high that, when I took a stroke, my hands touched them. I thought of all the beautiful whales I’d seen around the coast of South Africa and Norway that add so much to the area. How many whales were hunted and brought to this island before having their carcasses burned for oil and their bones dumped in this way? It disgusted me to such an extent that I considered stopping the swim to move it elsewhere, but I decided I had to press on.”

“Four-point-two kilometres is a long way for a frozen body to sink.”

“We cannot afford the luxury of cynicism or even pessimism in our reaction to climate change. The situation is too serious. We must tackle it head on – and immediately.”

“I think it foolhardy to predict the absolute limits of human endurance.”

“I don’t know of any sport where the goalposts can shift the way they do with endurance swimming.”

“I always tell young swimmers: 'Practice things until you can't get them wrong. Not until you get them right.”

“It took me over three years to get the beret and the most enriching part of the experience was getting to know men for whom you would have given your life on the battlefield. It is a big thing to say there are people who are not your family for whom you would give up your life. But that is how close we became.”

“When you have hope in the future, you have power in the present. And when you lose that hope, your dream goes with it.”

“[…] it’s much easier to achieve big dreams than it is small ones. Big dreams require big passion. And when you’ve got passion it’s easier to inspire others to come along and help you.”

“Don’t look for other people to validate your dreams. If it feels right, just go for it.”