Best Treading Water Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“If your ship goes down in the middle of the open water, you don't give up and sink. You tread water, clutch onto a spar, do 'something'." He stopped, wrung his hands. "Realistically speaking, if you're in the middle of the sea, you're a goner. But you tread water until you can't kick another stroke. Not because you're optimistic. I you polled ten random shipwreck victims treading open water in open sea, every one would tell you they're not optimistic. What they are is 'hopeful'. Or at least not hope-'empty'. They don't give up because that means death and living people can sometimes change their situations, while dead ones can't change a fucking thing. I've never been lost at sea, but I think if your buddy was weaker than you, and you were holding him up, you'd kick just as hard, because you'd be hoping for both of you. Because giving up for someone else is even harder than giving up for you." "Now I'm walkaway, I've been shot at and chased from my home, but I can't feature going back to default, because default is the bottom of the sea and walkaway is a floating stick we can clutch. Default has no use for us except as a competition for other non-zottas, someone who'll do someone else's job if they get too uppity and demand to be treated as human beings instead of marginal costs. We are surplus to default's requirements. If they could, they'd sink us. So what we're doing, Gretyl, is exercising hope. It's all you can do when the situation calls for pessimism. Most people who hope have their hopes dashed. That's realism, but everyone whose hopes 'weren't' dashed 'started off by having hope'. Hope's the price of admission. It's still a lotto with shitty odds, but at least it's our lotto. Treading water in default thinking you might become a zotta is playing a lotto you can't win, and whose winners - the zottas - get to keep winning at your expense because you keep playing. Hope's what we're doing. Performing hope, treading water in open ocean with no rescue in sight.”

Hope Optimism Luck Pessimism Lottery Winners Sink Expense Treading Water

Book:Walkaway

Source: Walkaway

“Any mother with half a skull knows that when Daddy's little boy becomes Mommy's little boy, the kid is so wet he's treading water.”

Knows Littles Kids Mother Water Half Boys Wet Daddy Skulls Little Boys Treading Treading Water

Book:Forever, Erma: Best-Loved Writing From America's Favorite Humorist

Source: Forever, Erma: Best-Loved Writing From America's Favorite Humorist

“I ain't never been in no college with famous people. I was a drifter for a while. I just was desperate to fit in with a group. Really, I was swimming. I was lost, treading water, trying to find my way. I wanted to play football. It didn't work out. I didn't really know what I wanted until I found acting in a theater department, and then everything just fell into place, and I had a passion about something. Then, I started living my life.”

“One of the reasons for putting yourself on the line, is that life is not simply treading water... I always felt that once you reach a certain point, you have to try and move ahead.”

Trying Reason Moving Life Is Certain Felt Water Lines Moving Ahead Treading Treading Water

Author:Dick Button

“Generally, it's not good to be engaged directly with the political system unless you are qualified. It`s a very depressing business, the way politics works. You get stuck into it, but then, at some point, you have to walk away. I had to walk away, because it's like this dark, black energy void. There are some people who have dedicated their lives to living in that energy void, but I can't do it. I just can't go there. It feels like you're treading water too much when you do. It's a crazy thing.”

“People are very adamant about maintaining a certain sound or a certain era, like, "There were three years of rap that were great, so let's just keep doing that." The genre itself is just stuck in place. It's been treading water for a while.”

People Years Certain Three Sound Water Rap Stuck Eras Genre Three Years Maintaining Treading Adamant Treading Water

Author:Aesop Rock

“Promise me you will not spend so much time treading water and trying to keep your head above the waves that you forget, truly forget, how much you have always loved to swim.”

Trying Water Forget Psychology Promise Wave Swim Positive Psychology Treading Promise Me Treading Water

Author:Tyler Knott Gregson

“Metaphors are our way of losing ourselves in semblances or treading water in a sea of seeming.”

Way Water Sea Losing Metaphor Seeming Semblance Treading Treading Water Losing Ourselves

Author:Roberto Bolano

“Nobody wanted your dance, Nobody wanted your strange glitter, your floundering Drowning life and your effort to save yourself, Treading water, dancing the dark turmoil, Looking for something to give.”

Giving Wanted Water Dark Effort Strange Dancing Drowning Turmoil Glitter Save Yourself Treading Floundering Treading Water

Book:Birthday letters

Source: Birthday letters

“I believe in work. If somebody doesn't create something, however small it may be, he gets sick. An awful lot of people feel that they're treading water -- that if they vanished in smoke, it wouldn't mean anything at all in this world. And that's a despairing and destructive feeling. It'll kill you.”

People Ifs World Feels Believe May Mean Feelings I Believe Water Work This World Sick I Believe In Awful Smoke Destructive Treading Treading Water

Author:Arthur Miller

“"Getting fired," Tyler says, "is the best thing that could happen to any of us. That way, we’d quit treading water and do something with our lives."”

Way Happens Water Our Lives Quitting Best Things Treading Fight Club Novel Fight Club Book Getting Fired Treading Water

Book:Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

“In the story of Ugly Duckling, when did the Ugly Duckling stop feeling Ugly? When he realized that he was a Swan. Each of us has something Special, a swan of some sort, hidden inside somewhere. But until we recognize that it's there, what can we do but splash around, treading water? The Wise are Who They Are. They work with what they've got and do what they can do.”

Stories Feelings Water Can Do Wise Special Ugly Something Special Swans Treading Ducklings Ugly Duckling Treading Water

Author:Benjamin Hoff

“Lord Maccon, being Lord Maccon and good at such things, then changed, right there in the Thames, from dog-paddling wolf to large man treading water. He did so flawlessly, so that his head never went under the water. Professor Lyall suspected him of practicing such maneuvers in the bathtub.”

Men Water Lord Dog Changed Professors Bathtubs Treading Thames Paddling Treading Water

Author:Gail Carriger

“I find now, swallowing one teaspoon of pain, that it drops downward to the past where it mixes with last year’s cupful and downward into a decade’s quart and downward into a lifetime’s ocean. I alternate treading water and deadman’s float.”

Years Pain Lasts Past Water Ocean Lifetime Decades Last Year Floats Swallowing Treading Teaspoons Treading Water

Book:45 Mercy Street

Source: 45 Mercy Street

“Within your own generation-the same songs, the same wars, the same attitudes toward those wars, the same rules and radio shows in the air-you can gauge the possibilities and impossibilities. With a person of another generation, you are treading water, playing with fire.”

Persons War Shows Song Water Attitude Fire Generations Air Possibility Radio Impossibility Gauges Treading Playing With Fire Treading Water

Book:Rabbit at Rest

Source: Rabbit at Rest