“Our brains are adept at concealing our motives from ourselves, convincing us that we are not as interested in status as we might actually be. This self-deception, paradoxically, enhances our ability to argue our lack of interest in status, which, in turn, can ironically increase our standing within the social group. People are drawn to this perceived humility, further entrenching the intricate and ironic dance of status within human society.”— Will Storr
The quote archive
A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.
People like Trump rally people behind them by pointing out threats; these may be real, but most likely are imaginary or inflated. Then he says, 'only I can protect you.'
— Garry KasparovWorld Chess Champion & Political Activist Against Russian Authoritarianism
If you offer no vision for the future, someone else will. Our geopolitics cannot tolerate a vacuum, and if you retreat- whether physically or ideologically- someone else will come up with a plan which may not be complementary for democracy.
— Garry KasparovWorld Chess Champion & Political Activist Against Russian Authoritarianism
History is not linear, like the chapters of a book… History moves through seasons, and so winters are inevitable.
— Garry KasparovWorld Chess Champion & Political Activist Against Russian Authoritarianism
Entrepreneurs are people who by nature are optimists, who can tolerate risk and who have huge curiosity.
— John SculleyCEO of Apple Computer Company during the 1980s and 1990s
Kodak had been living in linear-time, something which is intuitive to most of us, where we think in days, weeks, months, years… The world had already started to shift when people like Steve Jobs started to take-advantage of the fact that you could connect the dots.
— John SculleyCEO of Apple Computer Company during the 1980s and 1990s
Here was Steve Jobs and Bill Gates- two young guys, under the age of 30, talking about their noble cause of empowering knowledge workers with tools for the mind, making them incredibly productive, and helping them to change the way things were done in our world; creating entirely new industries in the process.
— John SculleyCEO of Apple Computer Company during the 1980s and 1990s
To scale? you have the stars aligned- timing is everything.
— John SculleyCEO of Apple Computer Company during the 1980s and 1990s
Entrepreneurship means the unrelenting belief that there has to be a better way.
— John SculleyCEO of Apple Computer Company during the 1980s and 1990s
It's almost like we have the left eye covering itself up and saying, 'nothing to see here, nothing to do with Islam', and the right eye bursting a blood vessel saying, 'it's all Islam, it's all Muslims', and Islamists saying that the divine inspiration for them is from above.
— Haras RafiqThe question I always ask them is '…what has our foreign policy got to do with Muslims travelling thousands of miles to go and kill other Muslims in Iraq and Syria?'
— Haras RafiqSalman Abedi, Khalid Masood, Khuram Butt, all of these people and the people in ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab… We tend to think sometimes that they are extremism. But the reality is they didn't breed extremism. Islamist extremism bred them.
— Haras RafiqExtremism is the desire to enforce illiberal views which are in a dichotomy to the liberal values that we all adhere to in a Liberal secular democracy; and you can have non-violent or violent extremism.
— Haras RafiqDoing something which has a social purpose gives you the motivation to overcome the hurdles and obstacles that you will meet along the way. It gives you that inner strength when you're doing something and you know it's making a massive difference.
— Kanya KingTrue grit is that rare strength and resilience to dust yourself off, look at what went wrong, refine your proposition and plough on. Always be prepared to adapt: an open mind is everything – but stay focused on your end game.
— Kanya KingWe all have obstacles we think can't be overcome, but if our dream is great enough, and we work hard enough, the world is ours for the taking.
— Kanya KingEntrepreneurship is about taking risks and having the audacity to commit and persevere through all the obstacles and hurdles we have to overcome.
— Kanya King