Lewis Pugh Quotes

70 Sourced Quotes

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

Lewis Pugh
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.

Lewis Pugh
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.

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

Lewis Pugh
Law taught me how to argue passionately and rationally. That's key to being a successful environmental campaigner. If you are too emotional you run the risk of turning off policy makers. And if you can't present your arguments rationally, no one will listen to you.

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
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
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
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.

Lewis Pugh
I don't know of any sport where the goalposts can shift the way they do with endurance swimming.

Lewis Pugh
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.

Lewis Pugh
The right to have our environment protected for the benefit of present and future generations is our most important human right.

Lewis Pugh
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?

Lewis Pugh
This wasn't some kind of stunt. This was a symbolic swim, and I needed to be courageous. [...] Swimming in a wetsuit or drysuit just wouldn't send the right signal.

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
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.

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
There's nothing more chilling than swimming across open sea, where recently there used to be a solid glacier.

Lewis Pugh
Everywhere water is under threat. It is our most precious resource. And there is no alternative to it.

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

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
The most powerful form of self-belief comes from believing in something greater than you. Because when you've got purpose, everything becomes possible.

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
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
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
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.

Lewis Pugh
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.

Lewis Pugh
They have [...] a split personality. One moment they're your best mate, and next they are trying to drag you down to the bottom of the sea to drown you. [...] It's just astonishing.

Lewis Pugh
A healthy ocean is an ocean with sharks. Take away an apex predator and it's like removing the lions from the Serengeti. It won't be long before the gazelle, zebras and wildebeest have multiplied and eaten all the grass. And when the land is laid bare the grazers will starve to death. Predators are crucial for a healthy ecosystem – be it on land or in the water.

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

Lewis Pugh