Diana Nyad Quotes & Sayings

Take every minute, one at a time. Don't be fooled by a perfect sea at any given moment. Accept and rise to whatever circumstance presents itself. Be in it full tilt, your best self. Summon your courage, your true grit. When the body fades, don't let negative edges of despair creep in. Allowing flecks of negativity leads to a Pandora's box syndrome. You can't stop the doubts once you consent to let them seep into your tired, weakened brain. You must set your will. Set it now. Let nothing penetrate or cripple it. — Diana Nyad

The spirit is larger than the body. The body is pathetic compared to what we have inside us — Diana Nyad

I've never been in any pain, ever, like that in my whole life. Now it's set me so far back, I just don't' have the lung capacity to swim the way I can. — Diana Nyad

Hard work and focus and will would shape my future. Nothing was meant to be. — Diana Nyad

But for each of us, isn't life about determining your own finish line? — Diana Nyad

There's so much boldness in living life this way, and we did it all, and no one can take it away from us. — Diana Nyad

The box jellyfish takes you into an area of what I'd call science fiction. You feel like you've been dipped in hot burning oil. You burst into flames. — Diana Nyad

Whatever your Other Shore is, whatever you must do, whatever inspires you, you will find a way to get there. — Diana Nyad

It seems to me it's not genetic gifts for tolerating stress or resisting pain that take individuals through extraordinary feats of endurance. When it comes to the most daring of Earth's expeditions, success always seems to come down to four factors:
One: Physical preparation. Training. You are truly the only thing you have complete control over. No stone unturned.
Two: Know everything possible about the elements, the obstacles. Knowledge is power.
Three. Surround yourself with brilliant and honorable people.
Four. Unshakeable faith. Go so far as defiance. Refuse to accept limitations and mediocrity. I won't let anybody tell me I can't touch the stars because I just might get there. And I will surely never get there if I don't keep trying. — Diana Nyad

I think I'm going to my grave without swimming from Cuba to Florida. — Diana Nyad

You will never forget what has happened to you. You cannot. And I will never replace your mother. I cannot. But you must believe that this is a beautiful world. People are basically kind and loving. You are going to live a wonderful life. You must take these memories and bury them deep in a corner of your soul. Don't live them on your skin. Tomorrow you will wake up for the first time in your new home, here with us. You will not wake up a tortured little girl. You will wake up a citizen of the world, deserving of a happy and meaningful life. — Diana Nyad

I am overwhelmed by the strength of my body and the power of my mind. For one moment, just one second, I feel immortal. — Diana Nyad

I failed and faltered many times, but I can look back without regret because I was never burdened with the paralysis of fear and inaction. — Diana Nyad

In swimming, especially training out in the ocean and open water, you got fogged-over goggles, you're stuck with your own thoughts - there's great benefits to that, deep thinking like that after many hours, but there's also tremendous loneliness. You burn out. You want to run, jump, ski, do anything. So at age 30, I was finished. — Diana Nyad

I swam. We made it, our team, from the rocks of Cuba to the beach of Florida, in squeaky-clean, ethical fashion. — Diana Nyad

I want to see all the countries in the world and learn all the languages. I want to have thousands of friends and I want all my friends to be different. I want to play six instruments. I want to be the best in the world at two things. I want to be a great athlete and I want to be a great surgeon. I need to practice very hard every day. I need to sleep as little as possible. I need to read at least one major book every week. And I need to remember that my seventy years are going to go by too quickly. — Diana Nyad

Write that novel. Start that business you've always wanted to. The ultimate high of life is the commitment to pursuing something. — Diana Nyad

Never, ever give up. You're never too old to chase your dreams. It looks like a solitary sport, but really a team effort — Diana Nyad

It's been a grand, elevating, life-confirming experience these last two years. — Diana Nyad

That down feeling, quitting, was far worse than suffering it out to the end, because that decision to quit haunts you and bleeds over into your outlook on everything else, just as not quitting buoys you for all else. — Diana Nyad

For previous generations, swimming the English Channel was the feat to accomplish. And that's been done. — Diana Nyad

I don't want to be the crazy woman who does it for years and years and years, and tries and fails and tries and fails and tries and fails, but I can swim from Cuba to Florida, and I will swim from Cuba to Florida. — Diana Nyad

The highs were high, the awe, I'm not a religious person, but I'll tell you, to be in the azure blue of the Gulf Stream as if, as you're breathing, you're looking down miles and miles and miles, to feel the majesty of this blue planet we live on, it's awe-inspiring. — Diana Nyad

Just getting in the pool for seven straight hours is unbearable to me ... It's grueling. There's nothing physically pleasurable about it. If you're doing a hard workout, you're throwing up in the gutter. At night you cling to your pillow and just hope that your body revives before you have to go back and do it again. — Diana Nyad

I am interested in the unknown, and the only path to the unknown is through breaking barriers, an often painful process. — Diana Nyad

You're never too old to chase your dream. — Diana Nyad

Every human being on this planet has their pain and their heartache and it's up to all of us to find our way back to the light. — Diana Nyad

I love that aspect of sports where you can see what kind of work, how much work, an athlete's been doing by how her body is carved. — Diana Nyad

If you can just immerse yourself in your life, it doesn't matter what you do everyday. Just do it intensely. Be in it, so that when you go to sleep you're exhausted every night and you say, 'Whoa, I just couldn't have done any more with that day.' — Diana Nyad

You have a dream 35 years ago - doesn't come to fruition, but you move on with life. But it's somewhere back there. Then you turn 60, and your mom just dies, and you're looking for something. And the dream comes waking out of your imagination. — Diana Nyad

I am willing to put myself through anything; temporary pain or discomfort means nothing to me as long as I can see that the experience will take me to a new level. — Diana Nyad

Close your eyes, close your fists, and say, 'I couldn't have done it a fingernail faster.' If you can say it, and mean it, I guarantee you it will be all right, no matter what happens. No regrets. — Diana Nyad

A lot of athletes have this sort of invincibility: [The jellyfish] should worry about me. I don't worry about them. I'll just swim right through them. — Diana Nyad

I do write all the time about - you tell me what your dreams are. What are you chasing? It's not impossible. Name it. — Diana Nyad

When you reach for the horizon, as I've proven, you may not get there, but what a tremendous build of character and spirit that you lay down. What a foundation you lay down in reaching for those horizons. — Diana Nyad

I've been living out loud the Henry David Thoreau saying: "What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals." The quest of the Cuba — Diana Nyad

You don't simply tell someone to get out there and win the tennis match. You say 'move your feet' or 'watch the fuzz on the ball' to really get into the Zen of it. You pull all that together, and then you just might hold up the Wimbledon Plate ... It's not about winning first place but bringing every element of effort to whatever you do. — Diana Nyad

There are some days where I'll eat 8,000 calories per day, on a day before a 12, 14, 18 hour swim. For a 61-year-old woman, that's a lot! And I try not to eat too much refined sugar - cookies, desserts, those sorts of things. — Diana Nyad

This journey has always been about reaching your own other shore no matter what it is, and that dream continues. — Diana Nyad

I wanted to teach myself some life lessons at the age of 60 and one of them was that you don't give up. — Diana Nyad

About the 50th hour, I was going to start thinking about the edge of the universe. Is there an edge? Is this an envelope we're living inside of, or no, does it go onto infinity in both time and space? And there's nothing like swimming for 50 hours in the ocean that gets you thinking about things like this. — Diana Nyad

This is a lifelong dream of mine and I'm very very glad to be with you, — Diana Nyad

The integrity and self-esteem gained from winning the battle against extremity are the richest treasures in my life — Diana Nyad

There is ... nothing greater than touching the shore after crossing some great body of water knowing that I've done it with my own two arms and legs. — Diana Nyad

Endurance is not a young person's game. I thought I might even be better at 60 than I was at 30. You have a body that's almost as strong, but you have a much better mind. — Diana Nyad

Swimming is probably the ultimate of burnout sports. It's ironic because millions of people who swim as their regular exercise love the meditation aspect of it; you don't wind up with any orthopedic injuries. But when you swim at a world class level for hours and hours - the loneness of the long distance runner. — Diana Nyad

When you achieve your Dreams It's not so much what you get, It's who you become. — Diana Nyad

If you want to touch the other shore badly enough, barring an impossible situation, you will. If your desire is diluted for any reason, you'll never make it. — Diana Nyad

From age eleven to age sixteen I lived a spartan life without the usual adolescent uncertainty. I wanted to be the best swimmer in the world, and there was nothing else. — Diana Nyad

I grew up in Florida, so you start swimming at the age of 1, really. By 10, I was competitive swimming, and by 12, I had aspirations to be the best in the world. — Diana Nyad

My mom just died. We blink and another decade passes. I don't want to reach the end of my life and regret not having given my days everything in me to make them worthwhile. — Diana Nyad

I have an uncompromising relationship with my goals. — Diana Nyad

The most venomous animal that lives in the ocean is the box jellyfish. And every one of those barbs is sending that venom into this central nervous system. So first I feel like boiling hot oil I've been dipped in. And I'm yelling out, 'Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Help me! Somebody help me!' And the next thing is paralysis. — Diana Nyad

I think 60 is when many people hit their prime. We elect many of our presidents in their 60s. At that age, people are full of ideas and their best self. I wanted to dig into my potential and bring out my best self. — Diana Nyad

I have three messages," said the breathless Nyad."One is we should never ever give up. Two is you are never too old to chase your dreams. And three is it looks like a solitary sport but it takes a team. — Diana Nyad

It's not too late, I can still live my dreams. — Diana Nyad

The mantra I used was 'find a way.' — Diana Nyad

All of us suffer difficulties in our lives. And if you say to yourself 'find a way,' you'll make it through. — Diana Nyad

You have a dream and you have obstacles in front of you as we all do. None of us ever get through this life without heartache, without turmoil, and if you believe and you have faith and you can get knocked down and get back up again and you believe in perseverance as a great human quality, you find your way. — Diana Nyad