We are meaning driven – it's not enough for us to what there is, we need to know why.
— Dr. Jordan B. PetersonClinical Psychologist, Author of "12 Rules for Life," Public Intellectual
“Our thought was simple; why don't' we send ill-informed comedians to look at these social issues? And that turned out to be the magical idea – because people were used to experts and journalists, talking in terms of agricultural yields and geopolitics… we sent out normal people, who were very well known, to talk about human issues and human problems.”— Richard Curtis
British Film Director & Screenwriter of Romantic Comedies
The quote archive
Philosophy
A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.
The world can be validly construed as a forum for action, or as a place of things. It is this distinction between the physical (a place of things) and metaphysical (a forum for action) that typifies the difference, as far as we are aware, between us and other species.
— Dr. Jordan B. PetersonClinical Psychologist, Author of "12 Rules for Life," Public Intellectual
We are first generation entrepreneurs, with middle class values, coming from middle class backgrounds, we never expected to be so wealthy! Our first reaction therefore is to share.
— Kris GopalkrishnanCo-Founder and Former CEO of Infosys, Indian IT Pioneer
I am a nomad—intellectually, physically, spiritually. A commuter, in the words of James Baldwin. This state of continuous exile is one that I find difficult to explain to other people but it's who I am.
— Elif ShafakTurkish-British novelist and author of "The Forty Rules of Love
When I say books can save us; books can be our dear friends, our amazing teachers, our loyal companions of the road, I really mean it, because it happened to me.
— Elif ShafakTurkish-British novelist and author of "The Forty Rules of Love
To me literature was, and still is, an existential need. Books and stories have been that gateway for me. I wanted to find a gate to an 'elsewhere', to another land, a Storyland.
— Elif ShafakTurkish-British novelist and author of "The Forty Rules of Love
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 GatesCo-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 GatesCo-Founder of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Health Advocate
Our inner desire to start something new and make it big has been one of the most catalysing factors behind our collective evolution as a species. Our quest to explore and develop markets has persisted since the time humans have been trading goods.
— Hussain SajwaniFounder and Chairman of Damac Properties, major UAE real estate developer
Human beings are naturally liberal about these things, human beings are naturally in pursuit of wealth and in pursuit of love and in pursuit of pleasure. I think that happens more in the West or in developed places because it's more accepted there.
— Chetan BhagatIndian Author & Novelist Known for Best-Selling Fiction Books
What makes any sport exciting is learning how to excel by staying within the confine of rules, not by winning through ignoring them. The team isn't just the one with your jersey, it's everyone who wears a jersey.
— Kareem Abdul-JabbarNBA's All-Time Leading Scorer & Six-Time Champion
Coach Wooden's little lesson wasn't just about socks, but about how everything in life was basically a Rube Goldberg contraption with many seemingly unrelated parts that form a greater interrelated machine. Neglecting what appears insignificant can create a domino effect of failure.
— Kareem Abdul-JabbarNBA's All-Time Leading Scorer & Six-Time Champion
As I see it, education that strengthens our inclination toward the good is the means toward creating decent behavior in humans. Such education should be of the formal kind and through role modeling and osmosis.
— Walter ZifferI cannot help but admire the insight of our Jewish sages of old who taught that every child is born with equal affinities toward goodness and evil, in Hebrew yetzer hatov and yetzer hara. This means that we are not born as a tabula rasa.
— Walter ZifferIn my opinion, the seeds of cruelty are in nature. We are animals and so we participate in animal behavior. Aggression is part of the natural world and we derive our origins from the natural world in which there are priorities that drive existence such as the need to eat, to reproduce and to defend.
— Walter ZifferI am not a big fan of the word hope, I am a big fan of the word determination. Being determined is a moral position, when you are depend on the word hope you are lazy.
— Ece TemelkuranTurkish journalist, author, and political commentator known for critical writings on democracy