"If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I'd still swim. And I'd despise the one who gave up"
About this Quote
The intent sits close to his humanistic project. Maslow argued that people aren’t just bundles of deficits to be patched up; they’re driven by growth, meaning, and self-actualization. Here, the “still swim” instinct is that growth drive in its rawest form: a commitment to striving even when the odds don’t offer the usual moral payoff of “success.”
The subtext is thornier. “I’d despise the one who gave up” smuggles in a judgment that clashes with the gentler, therapeutic Maslow many readers expect. It reveals a hard-edged faith in agency: surrender isn’t just sad, it’s contemptible. That’s psychologically telling, because it frames perseverance as a character verdict rather than a situational outcome. In modern terms, it echoes the romance of grit while ignoring what trauma, exhaustion, or depression do to a person’s capacity to “keep swimming.”
Context matters: mid-century American psychology was busy moving beyond behaviorism’s lab-rat determinism and Freud’s pathology-first worldview. Maslow helped popularize a more aspirational picture of the self. This quote works because it’s not neutral. It turns survival into ethics, and ethics into identity: you are what you refuse to stop doing, even when no one is watching and no one is coming.
Quote Details
| Topic | Never Give Up |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Maslow, Abraham. (2026, January 17). If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I'd still swim. And I'd despise the one who gave up. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-were-dropped-out-of-a-plane-into-the-ocean-29508/
Chicago Style
Maslow, Abraham. "If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I'd still swim. And I'd despise the one who gave up." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-were-dropped-out-of-a-plane-into-the-ocean-29508/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I'd still swim. And I'd despise the one who gave up." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-i-were-dropped-out-of-a-plane-into-the-ocean-29508/. Accessed 24 Feb. 2026.
