Swim Upstream Quotes & Sayings

Only the gamefish swims upstream, But the sensible fish swims down. — Ogden Nash

In college, a group of guys labelled me a "righteous little beaver." Again, I was slightly pissed because it seemed offensive and misdirected, but when I learned that beavers swim upstream, I realized that maybe it was fitting after all. — Amy Richards

Fear represents our need to hang on to the riverbank, to control outcomes, results, our lives; it swims upstream. Truth is about releasing that hold, letting go of results, and trusting the direction of Life's current. — Tom Shadyac

Man, as man, has never realized himself. The greater part of him, his potential being, has always been submerged. What is history if not the endless story of his repeated failures? — Henry Miller

One can never swim upstream to a prosper future if they continue to drown in their past. — Timothy Pina

Paradise, blooded daughter of Abalone, First Adviser to the King, frowned at the screen of her Apple lappy. She'd set herself up here in her father's library ever since he'd started working each night for Wrath, son of Wrath, because in the old rambling Tudor mansion, Wi-Fi was strongest at this desk. Not that a good signal was helping her at the moment. Her Hotmail account was full of unread messages, because, with iMessage on her phone and her Twitter, Instagram, and FB accounts, there was no reason to sign into it very often. — J.R. Ward

Show so clearly that this matter is God's work, not mine. — Mary Potter

I have seen salmon swimming upstream to spawn even with their eyes pecked out. Even as they are dying, as their flesh is falling away from their spines, I have seen salmon fighting to protect their nests. I have seen them push up creeks so small that they rammed themselves across the gravel. I have seen them swim upstream with huge chunks bitten out of their bodies by bears. Salmon are incredibly driven to spawn. They will not give up. This gives me hope. — Kathleen Moore

I know that life is busy and hard and that there's crushing pressure to just settle down and get a real job and khaki pants and a haircut. But don't. Please don't. Please keep believing that life can be better, brighter, broader because of the art that you make. Please keep demonstrating the courage that it takes to swim upstream in a world that prefers putting away for retirement to putting pen to paper, that chooses practicality over poetry, that values you more for going to the gym than going to the deepest places in your soul. Please keep making your art for people like me, people who need the magic and imagination and honesty of great art to make the day-to-day world a little more bearable. — Shauna Niequist

Stealing from one author is plagiarism; from many authors, research. — Walter Moers

Teaching is a good distraction, and I am in contact with young people, which is very gratifying. — Manuel Puig

Food is the most important influence on your health. It is even more important than your thoughts and emotions. — David Wolfe

Remember, a dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live one to swim upstream. — W.C. Fields

The Buddha described his teaching as "going against the stream." The unflinching light of mindful awareness reveals the extent to which we are tossed along in the stream of past conditioning and habit. The moment we decide to stop and look at what is going on (like a swimmer suddenly changing course to swim upstream instead of downstream), we find ourselves battered by powerful currents we had never even suspected - precisely because until that moment we were largely living at their command. — Stephen Batchelor

It's time to be the leader of your own journey. There are far too many capable people who don't pursue their dreams and goals because they let their fears and others talk them out of it. They give up before they even try, and simply let life's river flow them downstream. Choose to be stronger than that and swim upstream when you have to. Choose to do the things in life that move you and make you happy. Let others lead small lives and argue over small things. Let others cry over small wounds and leave their future in someone else's hands. If you don't take the initiative to make your own dreams a reality, you will end up working for someone else, making their dreams reality. — Anonymous

This beautiful body, sweetness? It's made for pleasure. It's singing to me, telling me what it wants and needs. Those other idiots you were with weren't fuckin listening. — Ella Fox

In the middle of a dessert, no one talks about the virtues of the Sun! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

Cooper smelled damage a mile away. He knew she'd never run. She'd never tell. — Suzanne Palmieri

All nuclear material in weapons programmes must be subject one day to binding international verification. — Ban Ki-moon

You're trying to swim upstream against the current. What is there about the natural flow of the river of life that has shocked you so strongly that you should want to swim against the current, even against time? You ought to know you're lost even before you begin. I don't understand you but I love you and I suppose you are obeying the law of your being. — Francoise Gilot

We must each of us bear our own misfortunes. — Charles Portis

Salmon. Salmon, salmon, salmon, salmon. I eat so much salmon at these weddings, twice a year I get this urge to swim upstream. — David Nicholls

so funny. The sun was shining into part of — Joseph Jacobs

Swim upstream. Go the other way. Ignore the conventional wisdom. — Sam Walton

I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul ... we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream. — Neil Armstrong

Independent will is our capacity to act. It gives us the power to transcend our paradigms, to swim upstream, to rewrite our scripts, to act based on principle rather than reacting based on emotion or circumstance. — Stephen R. Covey

Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness. — Robert A. Heinlein