“30% of people who have life-threatening illnesses don't take their medicine as prescribed, that's mind-blowing. These are not people who have a cold – these are people who are going to die if they don't take their medicine, and even in that situation, compliance is difficult.”
— Marshall Goldsmith
World's Most Cited Executive Coach & Leadership Development Expert

The quote archive

Psychology

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

By consciously and regularly going into the cold- I've learned how to tap into this primordial part of the brain; an area we've lost access to because of our destimulative behaviour. We need to get out into the cold, into the heat, and allow our brain to reconnect to these lost areas.

— Wim Hof

Extreme athlete known for ice exposure & breathing technique methods

Nobody knows how far we can go as humans and so I listened only to myself and my body and pushed it to go beyond perceived limitations, and guess what – outside that boundary is a whole new life where you really start to live.

— David Goggins

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

I don't see things as impossible; I got right to the equations to figure out how this could be achieved; I didn't put a barrier on my mind or body. A practitioner is the person who goes out and breaks the limits of the mind, the soul, the body.

— David Goggins

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

To overcome extreme obstacles, to do the impossible, you have to create another human being inside yourself. I had to create an image of how I wanted to look, how I wanted to act, how I wanted to believe, how hard I wanted to push. I trained that image in my mind, and then I had to become an artist to create it.

— David Goggins

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

You have to go into a very quiet place in your mind, away from the noise of the world, the noise of doubters, insecurities and your own self. You have to quiet your disbelief and create open mindedness to your own ability to succeed and overcome.

— David Goggins

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

Very few people know how the bottom feels, but I do. It's like quicksand. It grabs you, sucks you under and won't let go. When life is like that it's easy to drift and continue to make the same comfortable choices that are killing you, over and over again.

— David Goggins

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

In reality, you're rarely (if ever) completely helpless, you allow yourself to be helpless. You need to take ownership of a situation, break it down into bitesize chunks and plan accordingly.

— Chris Hadfield

Canadian Astronaut & International Space Station Commander

Having a plan, feeling confident and being competent are the greatest antidotes to fear. If you're just trying to deal with the unknown by crossing your fingers and hoping, you will be utterly helpless when a situation finally manifests.

— Chris Hadfield

Canadian Astronaut & International Space Station Commander

99.9% of the time, you are not in a burning building- and that is precisely the time to think about what you would do in that 0.1% of time when it is on fire.

— Chris Hadfield

Canadian Astronaut & International Space Station Commander

We have been interested in celebrities since the dawn of time. Jesus was the first celebrity, then the royal families. Celebrity culture exists even at a micro-level... It's human nature to be interested in the captain of the football team, the head cheerleader or who is doing what with who.

— Perez Hilton

Celebrity gossip blogger and media personality known for celebrity news website

The world of celebrity offers an escape from the real world, and offers different things to different people. To many, the celebrity world is aspirational, they imagine themselves living that lifestyle and dream of how it would be to go to that premiere, have that fancy house, or that expensive vacation. For others, the world of celebrity is like watching a car-wreck.

— Perez Hilton

Celebrity gossip blogger and media personality known for celebrity news website

In Silicon Valley there's a sense that there are 30 individuals who are 10x more capable than most people, it's like a power law scaling of talent... founders get immense leeway, capital rushes toward them... it also creates biases and situations where founders have more power than they should in their company.

— Nicholas Thompson

Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine & Cybersecurity Expert

People think these founders are all brilliant and can't make mistakes, we've found that; there's a sense that they can fix everything or have the answers for everything… they don't, and they can't.

— Kara Swisher

Tech Journalist & Co-Founder of Recode Media

The moment you send Billy Connolly, Lenny Henry and Victoria Wood out somewhere to make an appeal – they are representatives of 'normal people' perhaps in some ways more than pop stars.... Comedians are a kind of humdrum kind of celebrity, and as such I think they're very good at evoking empathy.

— Richard Curtis

British Film Director & Screenwriter of Romantic Comedies

I was talking to some kids last night and they were asking me 'do you remember that first moment that you knew you'd made it', and I said, 'of course I remember that moment, I'd been chasing it all my life'.

— Nile Rodgers

Legendary Guitarist & Producer: Chic Founder, Producer for David Bowie, Madonna

When you don't know your self-worth, you're more docile and easier to control by the 'machine.' That's the cult-like structure society is built around.

— Rose McGowan

Actress & #MeToo activist who exposed Harvey Weinstein harassment