From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Success is really a portal into the next stage that we're possibly capable of doing, and we have to decide how we're going to face that tsunami of emotions that then comes flying at us when we thought all we were going to have was happiness.
We want to be influenced because we want to be right. We want to take the more adaptive strategies in any situations in order to have good outcomes. It's an evolutionary psychological adaptation.
I don't think we can love God more than our greatest good. I think He is our greatest good. I don't think we can desire Him more than happiness. I think that ultimately, He is our happiness.
I cannot argue that my own interests are special simply because I'm me and you're not and expect that you will take me seriously. The nature of logic forces us to cede our own pre-eminence, because there is nothing in the pronoun 'you' or 'he' or 'she' which confers some special status.
As far as we know, space goes on for infinity, and yet is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. What is out there? We only understand about 5% of the universe, the rest is made-up of dark energy, dark matter and things we've yet to fully understand. Space triggers that innate curiosity in us about what's out there, where we came from, and the possibilities those answers could bring.
Your only duty is to take the rope and try to make a better one. Your only duty is to make the best rope you can for your children, for the next generation.
The genius of the classical economists was to think of economics and politics as the same. Remember, in Smiths' Day, there was no economics faculty, it was political economy. We may need to go back to that.
Anyone who takes the DMT space seriously is forced to live a kind of parallel life. You slip back into 'normal life mode' and almost have to ignore the implications of what you saw. It shows you that this tawdry, flimsy domain we think is foundational to reality is actually nothing more than a theatre screen.
We seem to be in a strange period of history where our official world view, our official picture of the universe denies the reality of the thing that's most evident and the thing that gives life value. I think people do feel this at an intuitive level, and it can lead to a deep sense of alienation.
I started from a position of giving, without expectation of return. I also decided that I only wanted to work with people who I loved to work with.
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.
The idea that if you are proud to be British you need to be proud of British history is nonsensical. Does it mean you have to be proud of all of history? Of slavery? Of abolition of you? Or me? Or Lenny Henry? You might as well be proud of biology or jelly. It makes no sense…