Wisdom in fragments

Don't aspire to be an entrepreneur. Aspire to create something that solves a problem. My message to young people with an idea is build a prototype and test it. Test it again and again, making the changes, learning from failure.

Inventor & Founder of Dyson Ltd, Bagless Vacuum Pioneer

Transport, natural disasters, the distribution of resources, globalisation – engineers and inventors have the traits and skillset to solve the problems the world faces today. And therefore have the potential to impact the world and economy. The economy can be boosted by exporting tangible technology that is in global demand. This is the hands of engineers.

Inventor & Founder of Dyson Ltd, Bagless Vacuum Pioneer

At Dyson our philosophy has always been to invest in the long term. To power our 25 year pipeline of technology we have just announced a further £1.5 billion investment into new research and development on top of our current spending of £3 million a week. You cannot create disruptive technology without investing heavily in the long term.

Inventor & Founder of Dyson Ltd, Bagless Vacuum Pioneer

Inventors shouldn't be afraid to take risks. They should embrace failure and learn from their mistakes. I created 5,127 prototypes of the first Dyson bag-less vacuum cleaner and only the last one was right! Not being afraid to fail is something I think all successful entrepreneurs have in common.

Inventor & Founder of Dyson Ltd, Bagless Vacuum Pioneer

Being an entrepreneur, an inventor, is about having ideas and having the doggedness to see them through. As an inventor your ideas should be based on creating a solution to a problem – a solution which focuses on function over form.

Inventor & Founder of Dyson Ltd, Bagless Vacuum Pioneer

The first human beings who will live to 1,000 years old have already been born.

Biogerontologist researching aging reversal and life extension therapies

Today you have the unique chance to change this situation, and at the same time to bring invaluable benefit to your country and the entire world, and write your name in world history, by supporting the creation of the immortality industry.

Founder of the 2045 Initiative; Russian entrepreneur promoting mind uploading and digital immortality

A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation.

Science fiction author who coined the term "cyberspace

Cyberspace has had a profoundly positive impact on humanity, but has also been abused, as a playground for criminals already used by some as a battle-space.

In humanity's relentless drive for convenience and economic growth we have developed a dangerous level of dependency on networked systems in a very short space of time: in less than two decades, huge parts of the so-called 'critical national infrastructure' in most countries have come under the control of ever more complex computer systems.

Journalist & Author on Organized Crime & Cybercrime

Human rights violations are not just legal failures - they're public health crises. When we deny people their basic dignity, we create conditions that harm entire communities for generations.

The law is not an end in itself, but a means to achieve justice. When the law fails to deliver justice, we must be willing to reform the law, not abandon the pursuit of justice.

Former Master of the Rolls & English judicial law reform pioneer

Freedom of expression isn't just about protecting popular speech - it's about creating the conditions where unpopular ideas can challenge power and where dissent can flourish without fear.

Voice actor best known for voicing Megatron in Transformers series

The real tragedy is that we have become so accustomed to injustice that we no longer recognize it when we see it. We've normalized inequality, normalized discrimination, normalized the idea that some people matter less than others.

Executive Director of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

Humanity, having never faced any serious competition or whole-species-threats, feels relatively safe from existential events and cannot conceive any threats it may be creating.

Co-Founder of Skype & Estonian Entrepreneur & Technologist

The power of population is so superior to the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other visit the human race.