Christopher Swain

Swimming, running, and advocating for nature, the climate, and the rights of future generations. Coaching athletes and leaders. Trusting the process.

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

—George Orwell, “The Freedom of the Press,” proposed preface to Animal Farm (1945; first published 1972).

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away.”

— Elvis Presley, quoted in Elvis: Inspirations (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2007), p. 16.

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.”

—Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, This Child Will Be Great (2010).

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“Only a try for the truth edges towards justice.”

—Nadine Gordimer, “Writing and Being,” Nobel Lecture, Stockholm, December 7, 1991.

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“Economists don’t seem to have noticed that the economy sits entirely within the ecology.”

—Carl Safina, The View from Lazy Point (2010).

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

https://t.co/Cat5HkL5zc

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“What if we pursued what is right, not what is easy?”

—Jacinda Ardern, remarks at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, Davos (2019).

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“Never in history was equity achieved without a battle.”

—Gro Harlem Brundtland, address to the World Health Assembly, May 13, 2002.

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“Justice is not inevitable. It doesn’t just happen.”

—Amal Clooney, “Remarks by Amal Clooney,” UN Security Council Open Debate, Women, Peace and Security – Sexual Violence in Conflict, New York, April 23, 2019.

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“I have seen hundreds of escaped slaves, but I never saw one who was willing to go back and be a slave.”

—Harriet Tubman, interview in Benjamin Drew, A North-Side View of Slavery (1856).

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

Back in the Hudson River yesterday (where I belong) with @FranceTV 💙

“Aimer, c’est agir.” —Victor Hugo 🤍

Merci à tous! ❤️

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.”

—Maria Montessori, Education and Peace (1949)

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“What if we pursued what is right, not what is easy?”

—Jacinda Ardern, then–Prime Minister of New Zealand, World Economic Forum, Davos (2019)

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“Justice is what love looks like in public.”

—Cornel West, Race Matters (1993)

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

Effort is a perception. A perception is something you can change.

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”

—Mary Oliver, The Summer Day (1992)

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“We are not outside the Earth looking in; we are inside her story.”

—Vandana Shiva, Earth Democracy (2005)

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot…The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

—Jack London, “What Life Means to Me,” Essay (1906)

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“Climate justice is not charity; it is accountability.”

— Saleemul Huq, International Centre for Climate Change and Development lectures (2019)

[Christopher Swain @SwimWithSwain]

“Human rights are not gifts from the state; they are born with people.”

—Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)