The question
What lesson has mattered most in your life?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.
The best way to spend time is to waste it.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 March 2025 source ↗
People remember how you make them feel more than they remember what you say or do.
The number one rule I give them is just not give them the golden rule. Do unto others, I'm not a religious guy, but, I mean, nobody said it any better in a couple thousand years than that, which may be why it's lasted to a certain degree too. I mean, more people are reading a 2000-year-old book about how to behave than anything that anybody's coming up with lately. Now it's got a lot of, particularly the Old Testament, it's got different kinds of stories, to some extent, but if the whole world lived by the golden rule, it would be such a more wonderful society.
Never save anything for best.
We are not here for long – try not to take everything too seriously.
A strong work ethic and enough wealth not to need it.
Intrusive thoughts and caffeine.
Whoever has to use the bathroom after my brother.
It’s really, really nice.
Fear is for frightened people. I’m not one of those.
A flight from Paraguay to South Africa that went badly wrong. The plane nearly fell out of the sky and the oxygen masks dropped. People were screaming but the pilot saved the day, and then apparently never flew again.
Bill Clinton, Richard Schiff, Eleanor Tomlinson, Caroline Lucas, John Waters, Roger McGough
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