"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

"There's a tyranny in perfection. Just do things to the very best of your ability. Then move on."

"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."

"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."

"The trick is to make fear your friend. Fear forces you to prepare more rigorously and see potential problems more quickly."

"To do anything worthwhile, you will face periods of grinding doubt and fear."

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

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

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

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

"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?"

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

"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."

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

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

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

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

"The English Channel is the perfect stretch of water to truly test the human mind."

"Old books, old wine, old Nankin blue;— All things, in short, to which belong The charm, the grace that Time makes strong,— All these I prize, but (entre nous) Old friends are best."

"Fame is a food that dead men eat,— I have no stomach for such meat."

"Love comes unseen,—we only see it go."

"Carry his body hence,— Kings must have slaves; Kings climb to eminence Over men's graves: So this man's eye is dim;— Throw the earth over him."

"And round about its gray, time-eaten brow Lean letters speak—a worn and shattered row: I am a Shade: a Shadowe too arte thou: I marke the Time: saye, Gossip, dost thou soe?"

"O English girl, divine, demure, To YOU I sing!"

"Time goes, you say? Ah, no! Alas, Time stays, we go."

"All passes. ART alone Enduring stays to us: The Bust out-lasts the throne,— The Coin, Tiberius."

"The ladies of St. James’s! They’re painted to the eyes; Their white it stays forever Their red it never dies: But Phillida, my Phillida! Her colour comes and goes; It trembles to a lily,— It wavers to a rose."

"All the seasons run their race In this quiet resting place; Peach, and apricot, and fig Here will ripen, and grow big; Here is store and overplus,— More had not Alcinoüs!"

"In merest prudence men should teach […] That science ranks as monstrous things Two pairs of upper limbs; so wings— E'en angels' wings!—are fictions."

"... it may be interesting for an ear-witness to record that when Austin Dobson, after the publication of 'Vignettes in Rhyme,' was presented to Tennyson, that alarming vates inquired, in sepulchral tones, 'Are you a classic? Then become one! Read Horace every day of your life!' Dobson did not carry out this counsel quite to the letter, but with his customary docility in adopting good advice, he forthwith made a searching and prolonged study of the 'Odes' and 'Epistles,' a study the result of which upon his subsequent verse must be patent to the most careless observer, and may be traced upon his meticulous prose as well."

"A retrospect of the Eighteenth-Century Essayists subsequent to the ',' ',' and ',' only serves to confirm the supremacy of Addison and Steele. Some of their successors approached them in serious writing; others carried the lighter kinds to considerable perfection; but none (Goldsmith alone excepted) really rivaled them in that happily mingling of the lively and severe, which Johnson envied but could not emulate."

"A man is as old as he's feeling, a woman is as old as she looks."

"Just take a trifling handful, O philosopher! Of magic matter: give it a slight toss over The ambient ether—and I don’t see why You should n’t make a sky."

"Life and the Universe show spontaneity; Down with ridiculous notions of Deity! Churches and creeds are lost in the mists; Truth must be sought with the Positivists."