Wisdom in fragments

I'm just a person who loves to do things before others. I'm very open to listening to young people, and always have a good relationship with them. I'm curious. Thanks to this, I try to do things before they become huge – I feel the market, the world, and try to be more-close to the world today.

Founder and Chairman of Diesel fashion brand and Only The Brave Group

You are all so smart… and this was so bad… how could your discipline have not seen it coming? Implicit in the Queen's question was the assertion that economists don't get out enough and talk to people in the wider economy.

Dean of Columbia Business School & Economic Policy Advisor

There is a problem with business leaders and the economics profession where we have celebrated the gains from neoliberal policies whilst only paying lip-service to compensating those left-behind.

Dean of Columbia Business School & Economic Policy Advisor

We've had a collective gap of imagination around economic bridges. We know how to build bridges; we just don't build them.

Dean of Columbia Business School & Economic Policy Advisor

If you eliminate dynamism, you don't have growth for anybody, everyone loses. Rather than just having some people who are disadvantaged, everyone becomes disadvantaged.

Dean of Columbia Business School & Economic Policy Advisor

There's some psychological evidence which shows that people who have experienced very little suffering in their lives often have very low tolerance for difficulty and strangely enough, lower kindness.

Psychologist specializing in moral development and human nature research

A lot of people think we're pleasure motivated hedonists, but it turns out we have many other goals. We want happiness, but that comes in many different forms. We want pleasure, we want to be good people, we want to make a difference in the world.

Psychologist specializing in moral development and human nature research

We're the mammal that likes Tabasco sauce! We're the only creature (as far as we know) that seeks out suffering and pain willingly. We do so not just through liberal splashes of Tabasco on our food, but also through seeking meaning through activities.

Psychologist specializing in moral development and human nature research

Chosen suffering is part and parcel of a meaningful life. If you don't have any chosen suffering in your life, you're probably not living the best life you could.

Psychologist specializing in moral development and human nature research

If you tell me a pursuit that you view as meaningful and important, I can guarantee it won't be easy. If it was easy, it wouldn't be meaningful or important. We reserve the notion of meaning for things that have difficulty.

Psychologist specializing in moral development and human nature research

Politics is not about management – it's about creating a narrative that can inspire and can bring people along in a certain direction.

In these political times, that's more difficult, you must plant your flag somewhere, and someone will get upset. You have to be able to take that in your stride.

We're starting to realise that business is a major force in deciding the sort of society we live in- and so the role of business must be more in tune with political, social and moral norms of the day.

Running a business is a challenging job, but until relatively recently, that job was simplified to the extent that you had one target – make as much money as you can for the shareholders. Now, you have to balance a multitude of targets which makes it much more challenging.

We need a change from managers to leaders. We need people who can understand the political and moral structure of their companies, and who can motivate and bring people to go in the direction of those values. That's true leadership.

Mixed martial arts aren't like boxing. In boxing, if you lose on your way up? It's pretty much career over. In mixed martial arts, there are so many ways to win and lose... When that happens, you say, 'OK, what did I do wrong?' – you have to be honest with yourself.

Former UFC Middleweight Champion & MMA fighter turned commentator