From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
One of the simplest but hardest things to do is to be honest with ourselves. We are works-in-progress from the day we're born, till the day we die. You should never, ever, stop working on yourself.
We're breathing, defecating pieces of meat that are no more significant or enduring than lizards or potatoes.
Tai Chi is the physical manifestation of the Taoist philosophy. It represents the union of yin and yang. It allows one to embrace the seeming contradictions in the world, and in business. How do you become a profitable business while also doing good for society? How do you embrace ambiguity while also using scientific thinking?
For the first time since life began, a single animal is utterly dominant: the ape species Homo sapiens. Evolution has equipped us with huge brains, stunning adaptability and brilliantly successful technical prowess.
We crystallize and store knowledge in specialised sounds and language, and then play with it – build and forge and mould it and model with it – using it to grip hold of the past and to imagine and plan the future.
I feel altogether confident that the historian of the future will estimate the past thirty years as the most extraordinary in the history of the world up to the present... there has been no period at all comparable with it unless it be the period about 300 years ago, which saw the development of Galilean and Newtonian mechanics. This was indeed of incalculable importance for the destinies of the race; the conceptions then introduced are not only the basis of modern material civilization, but they were the cause of a very complete change in man's whole intellectual and spiritual outlook- in his philosophy, his religion, and his morals.
This realization that everywhere you look is home and everywhere you look there is something new and beautiful and wonderful to discover. It is a real lesson in Earthling and Earth appreciation.
I believe happiness is a consequence, not a goal. If you engage in the right activities that bring contentment, happiness will naturally follow. Viewing happiness as a goal makes it elusive; it's like chasing an illusory concept. Once you grasp it, it tends to dissipate—such is the nature of emotions.
You become immune to the evils of criticism and flattery and enjoy a fundamental self-esteem and not a desire for self-image. This is dependent on others and can be taken away any time you are not validated.
When people talk about getting there… there's no there to get to. The problem is the eternal search for there. There is no there, you are searching for something that doesn't exist.
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.
We need to be more nuanced about how we define integrity. For me, it's not about sticking to opinions, but about sticking to values. I'm very flexible about the best way to live those values.