What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Maya Jama said elsewhere, not written here
You’ve got to keep trying because you don’t know what amazing things are round the corner. Also, always be grateful – at one point you wished to be where you are today.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 June 2023 source ↗

Others on this question

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Paul Kalanithi Neurosurgeon and writer
I remember the moment when my overwhelming uneasiness yielded. Seven words from Samuel Beckett, a writer I’ve not even read that well, learned long ago as an undergraduate, began to repeat in my head, and the seemingly impassable sea of uncertainty parted: “I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” I took a step forward, repeating the phrase over and over: “I can’t go on. I’ll go on.” And then, at some point, I was through.
Recorded The New York Times, Sunday Review, 24 January 2014 source ↗
Jo Nesbø Norwegian writer and musician
The world doesn’t consist of bad and good people; it consists of people seeing things in a different way.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 April 2026 source ↗

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