“Our emotions are connected to our beliefs and opinions. Epictetus said what causes men suffering is not events, but their opinion about events. That piece of wisdom is very useful because it gives you some ability to have control over your emotions.”
— Jules Evans

The quote archive

Society

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

Society feels broken because society is broken. When the most powerful nations in the world are spending billions of dollars on ways to kill each-other, and a fraction of those resources on ways to heal each other, we're broken.

— Marianne Williamson

Author of "A Return to Love" & Spiritual Activist

Our world is the projection of our collective insanity, and run by world-leaders who are professional thugs, gangsters and mobsters.

— Deepak Chopra

Wellness Entrepreneur & Author Promoting Mind-Body Medicine and Spirituality

It was visionaries with a quest for achievement who made Apollo happen, and it seems to me that now? Our sense and spirit of adventure boils down to what we can afford, and not what we can learn or achieve by doing something.

— 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

We like to think of data as being objective, but the answers we get are often shaped by the questions we ask. When those questions are biased, the data is, too.

— Melinda Gates

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

If technology is just for the privileged few, then it will concentrate power in the hands of those who already have it.

— Melinda Gates

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

We have a growing inequality of rationality. At the top, we've never been so rational – we've accomplished technological miracles, sequenced the COVID-19 genome in days and deployed vaccines in under a year. At the same time, we have pizzagate, QAnon, chemtrails and 9/11 truthers.

— 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

There's no question that Facebook could have done much, much more in the last few years to address the problem. I don't think we can inoculate people against crazy ideas, they will always have takers- but we can certainly improve the way that platforms like Facebook operate because they don't have any incentive at the moment to restrict the spread of harmful content.

— Niall Ferguson

British historian and author specializing in financial and military history

The story of modernity is a story of scientific advance – but in reality, with every step forward, we're taking half a step backward in terms of making ourselves more fragile.

— Niall Ferguson

British historian and author specializing in financial and military history

We've built two great contagion machines. Firstly, international travel which has enabled vast numbers of people to fly over great distances. Secondly, the internet – and in particular, the way the internet has evolved... it became a machine for disseminating contagious ideas.

— Niall Ferguson

British historian and author specializing in financial and military history

Today's civilisation is more fragile as a result of its complexity. We've created an astonishingly networked world in which we communicate and travel in ways which were unimaginable for most of human history... but at the same time, we have made ourselves more vulnerable to certain kinds of disaster, and even invented new forms of disaster that didn't' exist before.

— Niall Ferguson

British historian and author specializing in financial and military history

Art, for him, is a crucial means for turning thinking into doing in the world.

— Olafur Eliasson

Icelandic-Danish artist known for immersive light and weather installations

Creation, whatever form it takes, must improve the lives of as many people as possible.

— Philippe Starck

Renowned French Industrial Designer & Architect Known for Innovative Product Design

No one has to be a genius, but everyone has to participate.

— Philippe Starck

Renowned French Industrial Designer & Architect Known for Innovative Product Design