No man drowns if he perseveres in praying to God, and can swim.

This Russian proverb wryly links piety with practical competence: prayer alone is not presented as sufficient protection from danger, but prayer combined with the ability to act (“can swim”) makes survival likely. The saying can be read as a critique of passive religiosity and a defense of personal responsibility—faith should accompany, not replace, skill, preparation, and effort. More broadly, it suggests that perseverance (in prayer, in resolve) matters, but only when paired with real-world capacity. The humor comes from its blunt conditional logic: divine help is implied, yet the decisive factor is human capability.