“The military have always done a great job of creating this band of brothers – groups who are so close-knit they very literally behave like family, and from an evolutionary perspective- we're wired to do anything to protect our family.”
— Dr. Rowan Hooper

The quote archive

Wisdom in fragments

A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.

Children are bought and sold like animals, sometimes at a lower price than animals. 168 million children work as child labourers, more than 200 million children who should be in education are not at school.

— Kailash Satyarthi

Nobel Peace Prize Winner & Child Rights Activist Against Child Labor

It's the convergence of technologies at any given time that allow individuals to achieve the things which simply were not possible before. Your smartphone can be used to diagnose diseases for example – every disease has a pattern.

— Naveen Jain

Entrepreneur & Founder of Moon Express, Infosys Technologies Co-Founder

You may become rich, engage in philanthropy and help a million people but the only way you can help a billion people is by building a profitable business. If you can't make a profit, you can't help a billion people – so go make a profit!

— Naveen Jain

Entrepreneur & Founder of Moon Express, Infosys Technologies Co-Founder

Most people think of entrepreneurs as someone who starts a company, but to me? Entrepreneurship is really about problem solving. You can be an entrepreneur in a company, in a family or in your own venture. The bottom line? If you can solve a problem – you're an entrepreneur.

— Naveen Jain

Entrepreneur & Founder of Moon Express, Infosys Technologies Co-Founder

The first trillionaires are going to be created through space exploration. Imagine the mineral wealth on planet Earth, and then realise that Earth is just a tiny blue dot in our whole galaxy… which is just one galaxy in a universe, which could be part of many universes. Everything we think is rare on Earth, is abundant in space.

— Naveen Jain

Entrepreneur & Founder of Moon Express, Infosys Technologies Co-Founder

One of the defining experiences I had with CNET, a digital media company where I was the fourth employee back in the dawn of the internet, was recognizing the power of asking for help.

— Matthew W. Barzun

U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom

One of the ideas you hear often is that in America there is a culture where not only is it ok to fail, but it's almost expected – like a badge of honor. This is true to a point but that implies a cut-throat culture that is more legend than reality.

— Matthew W. Barzun

U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom

The key both in the US and the UK is to have hand-raisers – people who want to take a chance, and get involved. That is a spirit that you see both in the UK and in America.

— Matthew W. Barzun

U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom

Too often I feel there is also a search for 'the next' Steve Jobs or Joanna Shields. These are extraordinary people and yet I believe we should not treat entrepreneurialism as requiring a narrow checklist of certain characteristics.

— Matthew W. Barzun

U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom

The overlap of these two is incredibly fertile territory and this is exactly where businesses in the U.S. and UK see each other – places where they both need to do business and want to do business.

— Matthew W. Barzun

U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, France, and the United Kingdom

My mind just never stopped thinking about what we could be doing next.

— will.i.am

Grammy-winning rapper, producer, and member of The Black Eyed Peas

You have to keep reaching, keep thinking about what the next-level is.

— will.i.am

Grammy-winning rapper, producer, and member of The Black Eyed Peas

What I've learned about tech is that it's cold and robotic; you don't know any of the people who make the stuff you live on.

— will.i.am

Grammy-winning rapper, producer, and member of The Black Eyed Peas

'Brand,' is what journalists and industry-people say… we say culture movement. As artists we say culture! Movement! And analysts say brand. I don't know what a brand is, but I know what a freakin' movement is….

— will.i.am

Grammy-winning rapper, producer, and member of The Black Eyed Peas

Entrepreneurship is the relentless drive to carry-on, no matter what. Entrepreneurship is tolerance, focus and dedication. Entrepreneurship is this 'true north' belief that whatever this 'thing' is that you want to bring to culture, that you will see it through… and that you are the one here to usher it into existence.

— will.i.am

Grammy-winning rapper, producer, and member of The Black Eyed Peas

Mental health conditions are extraordinarily common, conservatively 1 in 4 of us will suffer from one or more in our lifetime, and I defy you to find someone who hasn't seen the impact firsthand.

— Unknown