It is with life just as with swimming; that man is the most expert who is the most disengaged from all encumbrances.

[Ad vivendum velut ad natandum is melior qui onere liberior.]

Apuleius (AD c. 124 - c. 170) Numidian Roman writer, philosopher, rhetorician [Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis]

Apologia; or, A Discourse on Magic [Apologia; seu, Pro Se de Magia], ch. 21 [tr. Bohn’s (1853)]
    (Source)

Alt. trans.:

• "We live, just as we swim, all the better for being but lightly burdened." [tr. Butler (1909)]
• "He is better equipped for life, as for swimming, who has the less to carry."