There's a beauty in the truth which is undeniable. It's a tragedy in a way- sometimes we just need to understand what the hell we've truly lost.
— Tracey EminBritish artist known for provocative conceptual and autobiographical works
“There are a handful of families that own a very substantial degree of the economy including several companies on the stock exchange... The positive effect is through stabilising- it's very difficult for speculators to short stock here or to play tricks on the exchanges... there are simply not enough shares in free-float to do that.”— Michael Freedman
Mathematician & Topologist, Solved the 4-Dimensional Poincaré Conjecture
The quote archive
Wisdom in fragments
A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.
True art, real art, real creativity, comes from somewhere else. It isn't about a picture or decoration- there's a divinity to it…
— Tracey EminBritish artist known for provocative conceptual and autobiographical works
Most people would have a nervous breakdown if they didn't have their phone for a day; I would have a total breakdown if there was no culture, no art. I couldn't live without art, it would be impossible.
— Tracey EminBritish artist known for provocative conceptual and autobiographical works
Art is a vocation for me, not a career, not a job… you wouldn't say to a nun. 'so, how did you get into God?'
— Tracey EminBritish artist known for provocative conceptual and autobiographical works
I'm 65 years old, and one of the things that amazes me is the number of people who work to get to a certain level of success in showbusiness, and then quit to go play golf?! There is nothing else I would want to do in this world.
— Penn JilletteMagician, Illusionist & Half of Penn & Teller Duo
Even when I was 16, if you had asked me what I wanted most in the world – I would have said, '…to be able to do shows, and have people watch them.' Realistically, for my level of ability, talent and work-ethic, we expected about 200 people a night to come and see us.
— Penn JilletteMagician, Illusionist & Half of Penn & Teller Duo
When we were first able to make approximately what our fathers made by doing performance, we considered ourselves completely successful and had no ambition beyond that. If we were playing fairs and cruise ships, we were happy.
— Penn JilletteMagician, Illusionist & Half of Penn & Teller Duo
I'm interested in the 'modern' definition of magic which plays with epistemology, and the determinations we make about what's true, and what is real. The most important decisions you can make center around your perceptions of the world, and what makes you doubt them.
— Penn JilletteMagician, Illusionist & Half of Penn & Teller Duo
Magic is this incredibly weird bondage and discipline you make where you say to someone, 'do this thing to me that's morally wrong… you have my consent…' – once you give your consent, the morality changes.
— Penn JilletteMagician, Illusionist & Half of Penn & Teller Duo
Until James DeGale won a World Title, no-one who'd won a gold medal for Britain in the Olympic Games had ever won a professional World Title, which is quite amazing. Sometimes the greatest boxers get overlooked.
— Frank WarrenFounder of PostSecret, anonymous confessions project & book series
There's an old adage that the boxer is the last one to know – it's not true, he's the first one to know, but the last to acknowledge it. You can learn from defeat – it's not the end of the world, but you have to learn from it.
— Frank WarrenFounder of PostSecret, anonymous confessions project & book series
Anyone can have a good trainer; you can learn the moves and get fit. Any boxer or athlete can get super fit – the edge is mental ability – It's having the self-belief. If you're not right in the head? You'll never do it.
— Frank WarrenFounder of PostSecret, anonymous confessions project & book series
To be a great fighter you obviously have to have talent, but what really matters is dedication and discipline. I've seen so many guys with talent where I've thought, 'this guy's going to be a world champion...' but they've not had the dedication. You can't just succeed with talent.
— Frank WarrenFounder of PostSecret, anonymous confessions project & book series
I got into boxing promotion by accident. I went to the meeting, turned around and said, 'I don't need you, we'll promote it...' I don't know why I even said that! The next minute, I was in the promotion business and helping to get this thing together; I got bitten by the bug, and it went from there.
— Frank WarrenFounder of PostSecret, anonymous confessions project & book series
We can take a hell of a lot more stress than we believe we can. We should learn how to fight not flight. And fight doesn't have to be a physical thing – it can be that you feel something's going to be uncomfortable 'okay well let's avoid it'. No, go through with it but go through with it in a progressive manner.
— John KavanaghBoxing coach of Conor McGregor at Straight Blast Gym Dublin
It's like playing chess but while getting punched in the face.
— John KavanaghBoxing coach of Conor McGregor at Straight Blast Gym Dublin