Philosophy

Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilisation.

Indian Independence Leader & Pioneer of Nonviolent Civil Resistance

We all share the same 'planet in space'. When you take the time to think about it, that 'we're all in space' part is pretty compelling. I would argue though that small does not mean insignificant. It is a bit of a contradiction – seeing the beauty of Earth from space and the reality of how small our planet is in the grand scheme of the universe, but at the same time recognizing the significance in how perfectly placed in the universe our planet is to take care of us.

NASA Astronaut & ISS Expedition Crew Member

Going to space gave me the opportunity to separate from our planet, but in doing so it allowed me to feel more connected to it than I ever had on its surface in the middle of it all. I carry that with me all the time now.

NASA Astronaut & ISS Expedition Crew Member

There's a moment when you look at good art when time changes… It's as if time no longer exists, becomes longer, or is suspended. There's a moment of reverie when you're fully immersed in something apart from yourself. One experiences this sometimes in meditation. These inexplicable, wonderful and mysterious experiences we have never leave us.

Contemporary artist known for monumental sculptures and Vantablack installations

The need to express abstract registers of time and deep space, and something of the life of the body, has never altered. Art is not a luxury, an object of exchange, a profession or a career; it is an intrinsic part of being human.

British sculptor known for large-scale iron body cast installations

You have to put people first; you have to think about the society you're living in, what's good about it, and what kind of world you want. You have to also consider how that technology can have a positive impact on the world.

CEO and Chairwoman of Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation

The biggest of all perhaps is how life began. We still don't know how life started from a soup of chemicals – how molecules assembled, replicated, and managed to survive and evolve into incredibly complex life forms. We also don't know how likely this was, and if we ever able to answer that, it will give us a better idea of whether we're alone in the universe.

Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry for Ribosome Structure Studies

Digital technologies are now an unavoidable part of the infrastructure of life and society, and we have the capacity to design them in ways that promote, understand and respect people's goals and values in ways we simply couldn't in the pre-digital era. With many of these technologies, though, our deeper human goals get treated as secondary, or are ignored altogether, in favour of lower 'engagement' goals such as views or clicks.

A practitioner is the person who goes out and breaks the limits of the mind, the soul, the body. A practitioner listens, and understands that the voices who say things cannot be done are theorists.

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

I need failure like I need air. Unless people understand what failure is, they can't grow. I find growth in suffering, in pain and in failure.

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

You have to be your own hero; that doesn't mean sticking your head up your own ass- but being accountable for who you are as a person and finding strength from within.

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.

Ultramarathon Runner, Navy SEAL, & Motivational Speaker

As a matter of history it's crucial to distinguish between what I have taken to call 'mercantile capitalism' and what I like to call 'modern capitalism'. Mercantile capitalism I think of as prevailing in Britain, Holland, Spain and elsewhere from around 1500 to 1800 or so.

Nobel Prize Economist; Pioneer of Modern Macroeconomic Theory

We talk of inequality as a natural phenomenon, but the truth is that it is the product of our own political, cultural and social ideals. We have in effect, sanctioned these vast gulfs to exist; albeit often we have been selectively-blind to the effects they cause.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, 'first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win…' the good news is that society is reaching a critical mass of influence meaning that today, people cannot ignore us, and cannot laugh at us, they have to fight- and if Gandhi was right, we are near the breakthrough towards winning.

Environmental activist & former Executive Director of Greenpeace International

We have made money, capital, materialism and consumption into our God, it's a disease – you could call it affluenza. It is perhaps because of this context that humanity has lost its way, and the consideration of human rights has been subordinated to the interests of a handful of powerful people who sit at the top of the pyramid.

Environmental activist & former Executive Director of Greenpeace International