Lewis Pugh Quotes

I always feel nostalgic when I disembark (off a ship). It's not that I don't like land. I just love being at sea.

Look around the world. Wherever you damage the environment, you have conflict. We have had enough conflict in [South Africa] – now is the time for peace.

Most Channel crossings are won or lost before the first stroke is even taken.

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.

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

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.

If you have a passion, follow it. It's the best barometer of what you will be good at. And choose a career that you enjoy – the extra money of a job you detest isn’t worth it.

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

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.

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

These are areas of unparalleled natural beauty to be handed to our children undisturbed. We are merely custodians. You would not build a toll plaza and an administration block in the Grand Canyon or next to the Victoria Falls or within any other World Heritage Site.”

I’ve swum through some very cold and rough seas. I think that’s made me more determined than the average person.

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.

Unless our children have been into nature, it is unlikely they will care about it when they grow up.

Thoughts alone won’t make extraordinary things happen. But nothing ever happens if you don’t visualise it first.