Matthew Moseley (58, USA, MSF bio here, @matthew.l.moseley) regularly does unprecedented swims – down rivers, across lakes, and in seas – as well as writes books.

His latest book is Words on WATER. Droplets of Wisdom from Rivers, Lakes, and Oceans Words on Water is a collection of quotes and reflections about water containing over 400 quotes from 200 sources spanning time and culture, including Leonardo da Vinci, Bruce Lee, Lord Byron, Aristotle, Beyoncé, Jacques Yves Cousteau, Lao Tzu, David Bowie, Ernest Hemingway, and Wallace J. Nichols.

The swimmers quoted include Annette Kellerman, Lynne Cox, Benjamin Franklin, Sarah Thomas, Joel Matos Ortiz, Bonnie Tsui, and Steven Munatones who commented, “There are so many quotes in Matthew’s book that I was unaware of. From Plato who wrote, ‘A man is not learned until he can read, write, and swim.’ to Beyoncé who said, ‘The ocean makes me feel really small and it makes me put my whole life into perspective…it humbles you and makes you feel almost like you’ve been baptized. I feel born again when I get out of the ocean.’

All the quotes are thought-provoking and a great bedside reference for any open water swimmer.”

Below are a sample list of quotes Moseley has compiled for the project:

• Mark Twain in Two Ways of Seeing A River, “The face of the water, in time, became a wonderful book – a book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger, but which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as  it uttered them with a voice. And it was not a book to be read once and thrown aside, for it had a new story to tell everyday.“
• Poet, novelist, and essayist Jim Harrison, “In a life properly lived, you’re a river.  You touch things lightly or deeply; you move along because life herself moves, and you can’t stop it; you can’t figure out a banal game plan applicable to all situations; you just have to go with the ‘beingness’ of life.+
• Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher Hercalitus, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man.“
• Leonardo da Vinci, “Water is the driving force of all nature.”
• Anthropologist, educator, philosopher, and natural science writer Loren Eiseley, “If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.“
• Jacques-Yves Cousteau, AC, “We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.“
• Poet W. H. Auden, “Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.“
• Philosopher and author Lao Tzu, “Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.“
• Poet, theologian, and mystic Rumi, “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the ocean in a single drop.
• Biochemist Albert Imre Szent-Györgyi de Nagyrápolt, “Water is life’s matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water.“
• Writer, poet and visual artist Kahlil Gibran, “In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.“
• Poet, nurse, and advocate Laura Gilpin, “A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself.“
• Author Isak Dinesen, “The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.”
• Tragedian (playwrite) Sophocles, “The oaths of a woman I inscribe on water.“
• Singer, songwriter and actor David Bowie, “I’m an instant star. Just add water and stir.“

For more information, visit here or matthewlmoseley.net.

© 2026 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

“to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“

World Open Water Swimming Federation, a human-powered project.