Wisdom in fragments

Curiosity is the engine of achievement. It's what drives us to ask the questions that lead to breakthrough moments, whether in science, storytelling, or understanding human nature.

Producer of Academy Award-winning films and television shows

The greatest leaders have humility. A good leader is a humble leader. A good leader listens to people, gets other inputs, admits when they're wrong… and that boils down to humility; it's the single most important characteristic that I see in leaders.

Former Navy SEAL Commander & Leadership Author

War teaches you that there are many different types of people, good and bad, and you have to understand that good and evil co-exist, and it's up to you to calculate your way through the world, understanding where people are rooted.

Former Navy SEAL Commander & Leadership Author

When you fail, you take ownership of the failure, and then you assess what mistakes were made, what could be done differently, what better instructions you could have given, what better support you could have given, then you fix those problems, move on and try again, simple.

Former Navy SEAL Commander & Leadership Author

Fundamentally you build trust with people by giving them trust.

Former Navy SEAL Commander & Leadership Author

I don't think we can ever be sure of the decisions we make; but there are things we can do. Firstly; get outside help.

Co-inventor of Public-Key Cryptography & Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange

I still believe that nuclear is the greatest risk we face as a society today.

Co-inventor of Public-Key Cryptography & Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange

The American general felt that if we confronted the Russians with a determined show of force, they would probably back down. And you know what? He was probably right; but what does probably mean? If it's 90% then there was a 10% chance he was wrong.

Co-inventor of Public-Key Cryptography & Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange

At first, the 100 thousand million, million keys you would need to search might appear impossible, but Moore's law was increasing processing power and we quickly figured that if you could search a million keys per second on a chip, and you bought a million chips, you could search a million, million keys per second.

Co-inventor of Public-Key Cryptography & Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange

I realised that what people do is, instead of figuring out the right thing to do and then doing it whether they want to or not, doing the ethical thing, what they do is they figure out what they want to do and then come up with the rationalisation for doing it, whether it's right or wrong. And we fool ourselves.

Co-inventor of Public-Key Cryptography & Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange

They had a philosophy that we are not here to accumulate, but rather to provide a service to the world- to live a life of service- a service which included education.

Nobel Prize Winner for Gene Targeting in Mice

MIT was one of the places where molecular biology was born, and I could participate in this enterprise with my own hands.

Nobel Prize Winner for Gene Targeting in Mice

I went from having no parents, to having 65! For kids, it was fantastic, there were lots of activities, a very strong community, and everyone cared for each other.

Nobel Prize Winner for Gene Targeting in Mice

My Mom never recovered psychologically from being in the concentration camp; so, my aunt and uncle inherited me. They received this 'animal' with no social upbringing and turned me into a human being.

Nobel Prize Winner for Gene Targeting in Mice

I didn't have a childhood- I didn't play- every day was about survival. I was always moving to a different-place on a weekly/monthly basis. Since the only food I had was stolen, your presence was soon known by the local shopkeeper and they would make things miserable for you often calling the local police.

Nobel Prize Winner for Gene Targeting in Mice

Our vision statement was about elevating the world from a place of mediocrity to greatness.

Founder of Lululemon Athletica, Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist