Wisdom in fragments

My mindset changed from thinking that tomorrow I may be freed, to realising that unless I did something myself, nobody would come and rescue me. One of the ways I gathered strength was by constantly plotting my escape.

Former Colombian Presidential Candidate & Hostage Rescue Survivor

The first thing we need is activism. Corruption is a system, and to fight it we must first change the mindset of the population, and that can only happen through activism, through being present in politics, through being elected. You have to be in the media, you have to have a voice, you have to be able to convey your message strongly.

Former Colombian Presidential Candidate & Hostage Rescue Survivor

I believe my legacy will be BitTorrent and Tron. I'm building one of the financial infrastructure layers for the next generation. I hope our network will be used like SWIFT and that future generations settle their financial transactions on our blockchain layer. It's going to be very cool.

Founder of TRON blockchain platform & cryptocurrency entrepreneur

I fully believe the future of financial infrastructure will be built on blockchain. Today, we have a USDT on Tron Network. We handle around US$5 billion per day for all transactions, around 3x more than PayPal. This is only the beginning. Future generations will handle their payments through cryptocurrencies and all the settlements will be on blockchain.

Founder of TRON blockchain platform & cryptocurrency entrepreneur

BitTorrent is the first time in history that people found a way to make decentralised infrastructure work better and more efficiently than centralised. Transferring files through BitTorrent is 100-1000% faster than centralised infrastructure.

Founder of TRON blockchain platform & cryptocurrency entrepreneur

If we are to migrate our lives to the internet, we need a decentralized infrastructure that enables everyone to have control of their assets without being robbed. This is the same for money, right? Offline money is real money – nobody can take it from you. If you deposit that money with your bank or have a digital wallet with a bank, they can freeze your wallet, they can block transactions.

Founder of TRON blockchain platform & cryptocurrency entrepreneur

Today, we have a concept called the metaverse. The future of everything offline will be migrated online. Everyone will have their own digital life, and this introduces changes to our understanding of ownership. If you have a bottle of water in your house, it belongs to you. Nobody can touch it without your permission, nobody can get into your house without your permission. This doesn't apply to the internet world. Facebook can access your room and your house without your consent.

Founder of TRON blockchain platform & cryptocurrency entrepreneur

There's a cliché that astronauts don't see borders- but we do. The India-Pakistan border is clearly visible from space, as is the North-South Korea border. You can see our politics playing out – you can see the glow of humanity thriving, and the absence of light where it doesn't. We need to figure out our politics – it really determines the quality of life for all.

NASA Astronaut & International Space Station Commander

We have to remember – there's no Planet B, we have to protect Earth. Maybe eventually we'll make star ships, but that isn't happening for a thousand years. We need to figure out how to live here sustainably for the long term.

NASA Astronaut & International Space Station Commander

In space, you can only worry about the things you can control – not the constant low-level simmering danger that you might explode and die. If you worried about that, even a two-week flight would be hell, never mind a 200 day one.

NASA Astronaut & International Space Station Commander

The perspective of seeing the Earth from space has rewired our brain. We used to have a 2-dimensional view for hundreds of thousands of years. Then we became 3-dimensional with aircraft and rockets. Now with Hubble we have a 4-dimensional view of our universe. When you see a galaxy that's a billion light years away, you're seeing a billion years into the past in real time.

NASA Astronaut & International Space Station Commander

I came away from space flight realising that I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. Life is so amazing. Even the simplest organisms have millions of cells that have to randomly align in a perfect way, and those processes are infinitesimally less complex than emotions and consciousness. When you look at the universe and the forces of nature – science has to explain how it all works, but to my mind, there just has to be a creator.

NASA Astronaut & International Space Station Commander

Governments need to use their money to develop the future, not recover the past. We have to take this chance, if we don't, we're really going to be in trouble.

Swiss Adventurer & Pilot of Solar-Powered Aircraft Solar Impulse

Even if there was no climate change… even if there was no problem with the environment… we would still need to replace the polluting infrastructure we have because it is too expensive and too outdated compared to modern, efficient, infrastructure.

Swiss Adventurer & Pilot of Solar-Powered Aircraft Solar Impulse

We can only solve our ecological problems by linking ecology and economy. If we can create the right economic environment, change will happen. If it's more profitable to be efficient than wasteful, we will be efficient.

Swiss Adventurer & Pilot of Solar-Powered Aircraft Solar Impulse

We waste 75% of the energy we produce, half the food we produce and half of our natural resources. So much of our waste is waste because people don't understand that it's a resource that can be used!

Swiss Adventurer & Pilot of Solar-Powered Aircraft Solar Impulse