Wisdom in fragments

Coach Wooden's little lesson wasn't just about socks, but about how everything in life was basically a Rube Goldberg contraption with many seemingly unrelated parts that form a greater interrelated machine. Neglecting what appears insignificant can create a domino effect of failure.

NBA's All-Time Leading Scorer & Six-Time Champion

Forgetfulness of the past and the consequences such forgetfulness potentially produces. Extreme nationalism prevents nations from cooperating with other nations.

As I see it, education that strengthens our inclination toward the good is the means toward creating decent behavior in humans. Such education should be of the formal kind and through role modeling and osmosis.

When pushed to extremes by exterior influences, real or perceived as real, the inclination toward evil can overwhelm our psychic system and push us toward extreme cruelty toward others and even toward the self.

I cannot help but admire the insight of our Jewish sages of old who taught that every child is born with equal affinities toward goodness and evil, in Hebrew yetzer hatov and yetzer hara. This means that we are not born as a tabula rasa.

In my opinion, the seeds of cruelty are in nature. We are animals and so we participate in animal behavior. Aggression is part of the natural world and we derive our origins from the natural world in which there are priorities that drive existence such as the need to eat, to reproduce and to defend.

I am not a big fan of the word hope, I am a big fan of the word determination. Being determined is a moral position, when you are depend on the word hope you are lazy.

Turkish journalist, author, and political commentator known for critical writings on democracy

It's hard for people to defend democracy when it cannot defend them against social injustice.

Turkish journalist, author, and political commentator known for critical writings on democracy

If you say 'I hate politics!' you are removing yourself from the public sphere, and are rejecting the ability to be a political subject. You are submitting yourself to a higher order, a powerful ruler.

Turkish journalist, author, and political commentator known for critical writings on democracy

Once the cancer of authoritarianism gets into the veins and organs of society, it's not easy to get-out – they have this very specific way of paralysing political mechanisms and dismantling the fundamental human logic.

Turkish journalist, author, and political commentator known for critical writings on democracy

Populism is the act of politicising and mobilising ignorance to the point of political and moral insanity.

Turkish journalist, author, and political commentator known for critical writings on democracy

We're extraordinarily vulnerable to the functions of our heart, no other organ can cause sudden death.

Cardiologist and author of "Intern" and "Heart: A History

The heart is a fascinating machine. It beats 3 billion times in a typical human lifetime, consumes so much energy, and does so much work that if you attached a heart to a typical swimming pool – the heart would empty the pool in about a week.

Cardiologist and author of "Intern" and "Heart: A History

I grew up with a fear of the heart as an executioner of men in the prime of their lives.

Cardiologist and author of "Intern" and "Heart: A History

Growing up in Pakistan, I saw so many people with heart disease and having heart attacks – it felt almost biblical – it was catastrophic. Unlike a lot of diseases, there wasn't much a cultural footprint for heart disease – it's not something you hear about on news or TV shows.

Cardiologist and author specializing in heart disease and public health

Even if there's no profound cultural difference between brown, black and white Britons… they speak the same language, eat the same food, abstain from going to the same churches… identity culture assigns significance to their bodily differences, and so race exists.

Philosopher, Cosmopolitanism Advocate & Princeton University Professor