Lewis Pugh Quotes

70 Sourced Quotes

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

Lewis Pugh
My father taught me to understand that not much was impossible, if you had a mind to go after it. What seems beyond you is only unreachable if that's what you believe.

Lewis Pugh
You don't know pain until you've had a stalactite in your cock.

Lewis Pugh
There's a fine line between bravery and stupidity, which should never be crossed.
When asked: How do you deal with the risks?

Lewis Pugh
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.

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

Lewis Pugh
Going against the tide has never been difficult for me. It wasn't even a conscious decision but the natural consequence of following my own instinct.

Lewis Pugh
An estimated 100 million sharks are fished out of the world's oceans every year. Take a minute to mull over that figure. That's over a quarter of a million animals each day … If this number of humans were killed in a year, it would be called genocide. There is a name for what is happening in our oceans today: it is ecocide.

Lewis Pugh
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.

Lewis Pugh
We made fracking a civil rights issue. Because that is what it is. We all have a right to a healthy environment and to clean water. And so do our children.

Lewis Pugh
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.

Lewis Pugh
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.

Lewis Pugh
I have been haunted by that swim through the whale graveyard and haven't been able to get the image of the bones out of my head. Man hunted whales almost to the point of extinction, not seeming to care that we would lose one of the wonders of the sea world forever. It is the coldness of the water in Antarctica that preserves the bones and makes it look like they were left there yesterday but I like to think they are there as a reminder of man's potential for folly.

Lewis Pugh
Don't look for other people to validate your dreams. If it feels right, just go for it.

Lewis Pugh
[...] 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.

Lewis Pugh
When you are walking up a mountain to attempt something that nobody's ever tried before, and you pass people bringing corpses down, it becomes very clear that if you get it wrong, the consequences could be fatal.

Lewis Pugh
I resolved to follow my dream. I wanted to push every boundary. I wanted to swim further than anyone else. I wanted to cross seas and round capes that no one had dreamed of swimming before. And I wanted to swim in waters that were so cold no one thought it was possible to survive in them. And though it promised to make me poor and would take away the security provided by a career in law, that didn't worry me.

Lewis Pugh
Always when we walked, it was clear to me how much he loved nature, wild flowers, animals in their natural habitat and the simple pleasures of a beautiful sunset. My love for the environment did not develop out of a vacuum.

Lewis Pugh
Being the first to undertake a swim is exponentially harder than going second. You don't know what will happen. The fear can be crippling. It's much easier to go second. You know it's possible. But the world is divided into pioneers and followers. You are one or the other. I prefer to be a pioneer.

Lewis Pugh
There is nothing more powerful than the made-up mind.

Lewis Pugh
To succeed as a pioneer you need two things: ignorance and purpose. Ignorance of just how tough the path ahead will be. And a driving purpose, which keeps you going nonetheless.

Lewis Pugh
You must not dither - swim like you're running through a minefield.

Lewis Pugh
Too little confidence, and you're unable to act; too much confidence, and you're unable to hear.

Lewis Pugh
Ultimately I wanted to be a pioneer swimmer, a distant descendant of Scott, Amundsen and Hillary, except that I would be an explorer of the water.

Lewis Pugh
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.

Lewis Pugh