The Buddha would calmly invite Mara to have tea, demonstrating the importance of befriending what's difficult. The key is learning how to have tea with Mara and embrace even the most intense energies.

Cyberspace has had a profoundly positive impact on humanity, but has also been abused, as a playground for criminals already used by some as a battle-space.

For us, for our people, who were under communist domination, we were comfortable and happy to take on a European identity when we gained independence. Identity is something incredibly personal; and how the individual combines their national and European identity is something they do themselves.

For thousands of years of human history—let alone pre-history—there was never this sense, so common to us now, of a future likely to be radically different from the present. There was really a sense that humanity had already reached its peak, and so the question wasn't what comes next that's better, but rather how to prevent decline and loss.

Looking back, it was one of the best things that could've happened to me.

If I may return to the biology analogy too; human beings get a lot of benefit from walking erect, but our backs and our feet are sometimes sore because we are made of parts that were put together before we could walk erect.

I learned to problem-solve and be self-sufficient at an early age, and that has influenced how I operate my lab. I try to make sure we generate as much of our research, data and activity in house as possible, so that we own what we produce.

Unlike the common societal and professional desire to dismiss these responses as merely negative—viewing depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts as things to eliminate—I believe we should examine them more closely. How is drinking serving you? When we shift from judging to listening, people start to understand.

Intelligence and self-deception appear to have co-evolved, with the belief that we are fully in control of our destinies serving as a mental safeguard, despite its inaccuracy.

It might feel—if you haven't yet learned the rules of these hidden markets—that the outcomes are based on luck, chance, or things beyond your control, but you actually have a lot more agency in them than you think.

To achieve greatness means to maximise your potential at the highest possible level, and the highest possible rate. I don't really consider myself the best, but the fact that people consider me the best I take as a great honour and as testament to the hard work and what I was able to achieve.

I didn't have a childhood- I didn't play- every day was about survival. I was always moving to a different-place on a weekly/monthly basis. Since the only food I had was stolen, your presence was soon known by the local shopkeeper and they would make things miserable for you often calling the local police.