“When you're young, you're trying to earn a living- that's the most important thing. But alongside trying to earn a living, you're trying to find a voice and make films about things that interest you- you have an intentionality to your work. As you get more mature, gain trust and success- you get more freedom to make what you want- but those first-principles still apply; you are making a film that speaks to the things you're interested in.”
— Paul Greengrass
Director of Bourne action films and political thrillers

The quote archive

Philosophy

A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.

You shouldn't think of yourself as the person you are now – you are constantly changing – this is often called a growth mindset. When you think about human nature, you think of it as malleable, as something constantly growing and in-flux rather than something fixed.

— Angela Duckworth

Psychologist & Author of "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

The human mind can shape itself – the human mind can take itself as an object and change – no other living creature on the planet can do that, and it gives me tremendous optimism.

— Angela Duckworth

Psychologist & Author of "Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

Western civilisation has veered off course; we have de-sacralised the world in which we live. We are collectively insane, and we need to mount our own intervention.

— Marianne Williamson

Author of "A Return to Love" & Spiritual Activist

Every acorn is already programmed to become an oak tree, every embryo is programmed to become a baby, and every bud is programmed to become a blossom. Human beings are programmed as well, but we have something an acorn does not; free will. Every moment we live- we either allow the natural intelligence of life to unfold through us- or not. That natural intelligence is love.

— Marianne Williamson

Author of "A Return to Love" & Spiritual Activist

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.

— Deepak Chopra

Wellness Entrepreneur & Author Promoting Mind-Body Medicine and Spirituality

I do not talk about life and death – I talk about birth and death, they are opposites, and life is simply a continuum of both, and you cannot have one without the other.

— Deepak Chopra

Wellness Entrepreneur & Author Promoting Mind-Body Medicine and Spirituality

Most people run around like biological robots, as if we are an algorithm not a being. We become the predictable outcomes of the conditioned reflexes of our nerves, constantly triggered by people in reaction to circumstances.

— Deepak Chopra

Wellness Entrepreneur & Author Promoting Mind-Body Medicine and Spirituality

There is no such thing as a body in the deeper reality, nor is there such thing as a universe – these are simply constructs for species-specific modalities of experience.

— Deepak Chopra

Wellness Entrepreneur & Author Promoting Mind-Body Medicine and Spirituality

You have to start questioning, and be mindfully aware of your thoughts. When you do that, you realise that you are an observer of your thoughts, not the originator.

— Deepak Chopra

Wellness Entrepreneur & Author Promoting Mind-Body Medicine and Spirituality

In life, we all take various risks- not knowing how serious an outcome will be when we start. For so many things we do, we have to take a risk on someone else's word, with only their judgement calculating what the risk will be to us.

— Buzz Aldrin

Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11; Second Person to Walk on Moon

One of the greatest learnings in my life has been the fact that the sky is really not the limit, after all, there are footprints on the moon. The future of our species will see us travel further, and achieve more, than we could ever predict- so we have to keep our minds open to all possibilities.

— Buzz Aldrin

Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11; Second Person to Walk on Moon

I don't think there is anything about putting your country first that requires you to turn your back on the rest of the world. If anything, the opposite is true.

— Melinda Gates

Co-Founder of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Health Advocate

We can't solve problems if we don't understand them.

— Melinda Gates

Co-Founder of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Health Advocate

Many of us think that you should only believe things that are true, not just things that rally your coalition, sect, or tribe. That belief is by no means universal, but it is a gift of the enlightenment.

— Steven Pinker

Cognitive Scientist & Psychologist Known for Research on Language and Human Nature

The laws of cause and effect which govern our universe don't care about our beliefs – so we'd better find out what those laws are and try and align our beliefs to them to eliminate guesswork. The consequences if we don't? we'll get sick, we'll starve, our machines will break down.

— Steven Pinker

Cognitive Scientist & Psychologist Known for Research on Language and Human Nature

Truth is an aspiration which none of us can ever know that we have attained. Nobody has a pipeline to the truth; nobody is imbued with divine revelation. We seek truth through institutions like science, journalism, governance, justice systems and record keeping. These are the bodies that make us collectively more suited to attain the truth.

— Steven Pinker

Cognitive Scientist & Psychologist Known for Research on Language and Human Nature