“The economy is a subset of society, it's a social construct. It's entirely created by humanity- by the way we interact with one another to meet our wants and needs and human society itself is embedded in the living world, we are part of nature whether we like it or not- and we have to respect the rest of nature.”— Kate Raworth
The quote archive
A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.
Your competitors are looking for the product, idea or feature that gives such a competitive advantage that they can take all your customers away from you. You need to work like someone's trying to take it all away from you, because they are.
— Mark CubanBillionaire Investor, Shark Tank Investor & Dallas Mavericks Owner
Taking that first step is your biggest competitive advantage; most people won't do it.
— Mark CubanBillionaire Investor, Shark Tank Investor & Dallas Mavericks Owner
Fear depends on your context, and how much you think you have to lose. You may be young or broke and have nothing to lose. In that case? Either you figure out a way to get something, or you don't get it. Simple.
— Mark CubanBillionaire Investor, Shark Tank Investor & Dallas Mavericks Owner
We can expand our circle of sympathy – we can employ the logic of impartiality, and the emotional prompts of human contact and vicarious experience, and expand our fellow-feeling from our family to our clan, our nation, tribe, and from there to all of humanity and even other sentient beings.
— Steven PinkerCognitive Scientist & Psychologist Known for Research on Language and Human Nature
Our capacity to reason is recursive, combinatorial – we can reason about our reason – we can argue, criticise and develop tools that enhance our reason thanks to language and communication. We have the power to build on our reason, to enhance it.
— Steven PinkerCognitive Scientist & Psychologist Known for Research on Language and Human Nature
I cannot argue that my own interests are special simply because I'm me and you're not and expect that you will take me seriously. The nature of logic forces us to cede our own pre-eminence, because there is nothing in the pronoun 'you' or 'he' or 'she' which confers some special status.
— Steven PinkerCognitive Scientist & Psychologist Known for Research on Language and Human Nature
There has never been a time at which Enlightenment values predominated in any culture. They have always faced pushback from forces that are embedded in human nature – tribalism, deference to authority, magical thinking, vulnerability to cognitive illusions and biases.
— Steven PinkerCognitive Scientist & Psychologist Known for Research on Language and Human Nature
The theory describes only the way objects interact with one another, without indicating what happens between one interaction and the next one.
— Carlo RovelliTheoretical physicist known for loop quantum gravity research and popular science writing
Quantum mechanics says our world is nebulous, fuzzy, a haze of possibilities until it somehow snaps to attention upon an appropriate interaction, observation or measurement. That's a very strange reality, and the fact that this theory is so demonstrably correct is radically important to our understanding.
— Brian GreeneTheoretical Physicist & Bestselling Author on String Theory & Cosmology
Without quantum mechanics, we wouldn't have the modern world… we wouldn't have electronics… we wouldn't have understood the semi-conductor, the computer chip…. All of our modern technology relies on this mathematical description of the world of the very small.
— Jim Al-KhaliliTheoretical physicist, author, and BBC science communicator known for public engagement
The quantum universe is counter-intuitive, it's fuzzy, probabilistic, and suggests things that we would regard as fantastical and magical if we saw them on the everyday scale- yet it's the most powerful theory in science.
— Jim Al-KhaliliTheoretical physicist, author, and BBC science communicator known for public engagement
Quantum mechanics is the most radical break in our thinking of reality that we have ever encountered. Quantum mechanics comes along and says that whole experience is misleading, and that the best you can ever do is to predict the probabilities of outcomes.
— Brian GreeneTheoretical Physicist & Bestselling Author on String Theory & Cosmology
All you've got to do is- to their face- call yourself every name that they are harbouring about you, it's that simple; it means you're demonstrating understanding. The thing is, it may sound easy- but it's hard to do- but if you can do it- it can unlock a situation in a heartbeat.
— Chris VossFormer FBI Hostage Negotiator & Author of "Never Split the Difference
It's a myth that both sides of a negotiation have to be equally happy or unhappy. A great relationship is where people are happy- not just with how things are but with how they got to be.
— Chris VossFormer FBI Hostage Negotiator & Author of "Never Split the Difference
Mirroring is a crazy skill, it's so insanely effective. Just repeating the last 3 words of what someone said or picking out 1-3 words from the middle of the statement, can get you the outcome you need. Using mirroring, you feel like you can work Jedi mind tricks!
— Chris VossFormer FBI Hostage Negotiator & Author of "Never Split the Difference
You are as good as your highest level of preparation in any negotiation. In any negotiation, you develop trust by putting in time where you don't have any skin in the game; that means you need to watch negotiations happen- and get a feel for how it's done.
— Chris VossFormer FBI Hostage Negotiator & Author of "Never Split the Difference