Every single individual in the world, including you and I, have a grievance or a problem at any given moment in time. When you and I go to sleep tonight in our own beds, you'll be thinking about a problem that's affecting you and I'll be thinking about a problem that's affecting me.
— Haras Rafiq“I always tried to run my business in a humane way. I had this idea of business being tough and harsh, and thought I could build a business that was humane and kind. Performance metrics and KPIs are relatively straightforward to follow, but doing the 'right thing' is not nearly so clear cut.”— Dame Stephanie Shirley
The quote archive
Society
A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.
Salman Abedi, Khalid Masood, Khuram Butt, all of these people and the people in ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab… We tend to think sometimes that they are extremism. But the reality is they didn't breed extremism. Islamist extremism bred them.
— Haras RafiqDoing something which has a social purpose gives you the motivation to overcome the hurdles and obstacles that you will meet along the way. It gives you that inner strength when you're doing something and you know it's making a massive difference and a huge impact.
— Kanya KingWhat we're seeing is a global shift towards meaning and WeWork is helping achieve that on a global scale.
— Miguel McKelveyCo-founder of WeWork, co-working space company
I was at one of our schools in Kenya recently, I was just chatting away to a group of children about all the things we had seen that day- the lions and how lucky they are to be sitting next to Meru National Park, and I said 'would anyone like to ask me a question?'. Suddenly this little boy put up his hand and he said 'please miss, why do men kill lions?'. Well, I could have hugged him if he wouldn't have been mortified with embarrassment.
— Virginia McKennaBritish actress known for "Born Free" and animal welfare advocacy
Much of the mistreatment of animals is due to economics; it's cheaper to raise animals for food when they're kept in a confined 'economical' way rather than letting them graze in fields. In my view, we should actually only have the free-range farms – meat would then be more expensive and more people would become vegetarian, vegan, and find alternative protein foods so that we don't cause this terrible animal suffering.
— Virginia McKennaBritish actress known for "Born Free" and animal welfare advocacy
The scale of our damage on the animal world is unimaginable. We inflict pain and suffering on wild and domestic animals. We take away their wild lands and habitats, we use them to test our medicines and they're affected by climate change, pollution and many other aspects of our world. We are the master race. We are the creatures who impose our will on virtually everything that lives and breathes. It's deeply shocking when you start to think about the scale of it.
— Virginia McKennaBritish actress known for "Born Free" and animal welfare advocacy
In our culture, particularly in the last 300-500 years in Western culture, people have become much more ambivalent to ecstatic experiences. The idea of losing control is seen as dangerous and shameful... We're a culture that's very much about individual autonomy, and ecstasy is the opposite of that – it's about surrendering control.
— Jules EvansPhilosophy is embedded in everything. We all have philosophies which form the basis for our motivations and what we do with our days. Everyone has their own philosophy of life; every institution has a philosophy... but for most of us, those philosophies are unexamined and more or less automatic and instinctual.
— Jules Evansexamines the research behind diversity and discrimination while grounding them in personal narratives, highlighting our common humanity.
— Kofi AnnanUN Secretary-General & Nobel Peace Prize Winner
When you bring communities together to talk- these central themes, and things we have in common, come to the fore. When you break bread together, and you find common ground, before you know it you stop thinking about your differences, or you appreciate them.
— June SarpongBritish TV Presenter, Diversity Advocate & Commonwealth Games Federation Official
When you meet somebody who seems unfamiliar, who appears to be different, and for whatever reason you feel uncomfortable with that, a wall goes up, and you behave differently towards them; it impacts your actions.
— June SarpongBritish TV Presenter, Diversity Advocate & Commonwealth Games Federation Official
We need to change our hearts and minds, not just our behaviours. Forget even the moral argument, discriminating is such a waste. It is from our diverse cultures and communities that we could find the cure for cancer, where we could find all of the solutions for some of our most pressing problems.
— June SarpongBritish TV Presenter, Diversity Advocate & Commonwealth Games Federation Official
Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilisation.
— Mahatma GandhiIndian Independence Leader & Pioneer of Nonviolent Civil Resistance
our school system is the best performing urban school system in the entire state of California. In less than 5 years. Because of Bennioff and the Sales Force foundation with Circle the Schools and all these other programs.
— Edwin M. LeeMayor of San Francisco (2011-2018) & First Asian-American Mayor
San Francisco is the city of love and compassion, will always be, and will never change that. I know that's a very broad response, but I do think that's what motivates me the most in terms of the vision and feeling I have for the city.
— Edwin M. LeeMayor of San Francisco (2011-2018) & First Asian-American Mayor