Lewis Pugh Quotes

There’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity, which should never be crossed.

I’ve been swimming for 25 years, and I don’t think there is one swim that I have done where someone didn’t say beforehand, ‘I don’t think it’s possible’ or ‘You’ll never make it’. If someone tells you that you can’t achieve your dream, don’t waste good time arguing. Walk away and do it.

I tolerate cold water. Anyone who says they love swimming in freezing water is either lying or has never done it.

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.

If we pass on an unsustainable environment to our children we have failed them.

I always tell young swimmers: 'Practice things until you can't get them wrong. Not until you get them right.' There's a big difference.

I’m not a rule-breaker by nature. But there are times when you need to untangle yourself from red tape. Because the truth is, if you wait for permission, some things will simply never happen.

Never, ever did I think that there would be a debate in this arid country about which was more important – gas or water. We can survive without gas. We cannot live without water.

When I can’t decide which path to take, I have a meeting with the 75-year-old me. That person usually knows what to do.

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

A thought came across my mind: if things go pear-shaped on this swim, how long will it take for my frozen body to sink the four and a half kilometers to the bottom of the ocean?

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.

As a pioneer swimmer, you've got to be willing to fail and try again. The point isn’t to learn to fail, the point is to learn to bounce back.

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