England international footballer
We know there are over 380,000 children across the UK today that have never owned a book, children that are in vulnerable environments. That has to change.
Recorded · Sky Sports · 2020
Taking stock
For a birthday, or an anniversary, or a long train. The questions people answer differently at sixty than they would have at thirty — and on this site you can often read both.
24 people · 193 answers
If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why?
Gynaecological surgeon; Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 2018
Taking action means saying 'no' to indifference. If there is a war to be waged, it is the war against the indifference which is eating away at our societies.
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 2018
Founder of the Green Belt Movement; Member of Parliament for Tetu, Kenya, 2002–2007; Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources 2003–2005
In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground.
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 2004
Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1997–2006
In this new century, we must start from the understanding that peace belongs not only to states or peoples, but to each and every member of those communities.
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 2001
39th President of the United States, 1977–1981; Governor of Georgia 1971–1975
War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 2002
United States international footballer, 2001–2015
GIVE ME THE RESPECT I'VE EARNED AND GIVE IT TO MY WOLF PACK TOO.
Recorded · Speakola · 2018
What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore?
Kenyan marathon runner
Only the disciplined ones are free in life. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods. You are a slave to your passions.
Recorded · Outside · 2018
Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984
Dream. Dream. Dream. Be like God, dream because God believes in you young people. Most of God’s best collaborators and partners have been young people. Joseph, David, Jeremiah, St. Francis.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement
Prime Minister of Pakistan, 1988–1990 and 1993–1996
I’d tell them, “If you believe in something, go for it, but know that when you go for it there’s a price to be paid.
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 2000
Co-founder and chief executive of Airbnb
Getting rich slow isn't actually slower. It's slower in year one, but it might be faster in year seven.
Recorded · Business Insider (Markets Insider) · 2020
Chairman of Tata Sons, 1991–2012
I would hope that most of you will in fact strive for leadership in a principled manner with values, because that would be the foundation that this country needs to have if it is to take…
Recorded · Rediff Business · 2010
President of Costa Rica, 1986–1990 and 2006–2010
History was not written by men who predicted failure, who gave up their dreams, who abandoned their principles, who allowed their laziness to put their intelligence to sleep.
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 1987
What is the most overrated virtue?
First Lady of the United States 1933–1945; United States Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly 1945–1952; Chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights 1946–1951
Tolerance ought only to be a preliminary step which allows us to get to know other people, and which prevents us from setting up bars, just because they may be of a different race or…
Recorded · Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, The George Washington University · 1943
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
Security. People naturally resist change in our personal lives.
Recorded · ABC News · 2011
26th President of the United States, 1901–1909; Governor of New York 1899–1900; Assistant Secretary of the Navy 1897–1898
Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into a fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world!
Recorded · The American Presidency Project, University of California Santa Barbara · 1910
Creator of the Linux kernel and of Git
I've actually felt slightly uncomfortable at TED for the last two days, because there's a lot of vision going on, right? And I am not a visionary. I do not have a five-year plan.
Recorded · TED (transcript of the TED2016 interview) · 2016
Author and marketer; founder of Yoyodyne and Squidoo
I think authenticity is a crock, and I think authenticity is overrated and talked about far too much. The problem with authenticity is it’s selfish.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2020
Designer; host of Design Matters; founder of the SVA branding programme
one of the things that I learned from doing Design Matters from my guest Danny Shapiro, and I think I mentioned this in part one of my interview with Tim; confidence is overrated.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2018
In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to?
Co-founder of Viaweb and of the startup accelerator Y Combinator; essayist
When I ask myself what I've found life is too short for, the word that pops into my head is “bullshit.” I realize that answer is somewhat tautological.
Recorded · paulgraham.com · 2016
Novelist and short-story writer
Don’t read your reviews. […] Don’t write reviews. (Your judgment’s always tainted.) […] Don’t write letters to the editor. (No one cares.)
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
Theoretical physicist; Nobel laureate in Physics, 1965
the colonel said I shouldn't tell them how the neutrons work and all the details because we want to keep things separate, so just tell them what to do to keep it safe.
Recorded · Engineering and Science / Caltech Magazine · 1976
United States artistic gymnast
I just felt like it would be a little bit better to take a back seat, work on my mindfulness.
Recorded · Rev · 2021
Novelist and essayist
Take no notice of anyone you don’t respect. […] Take no notice of anyone with a gender agenda. A lot of men still think that women lack imagination of the fiery kind.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
Novelist, dramatist and screenwriter
Do restrict your browsing to a few websites a day. Don’t go near the online bookies – unless it’s research. […] Do not search amazon.co.uk for the book you haven’t written yet.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it?
Education campaigner; co-founder of the Malala Fund; United Nations Messenger of Peace
I had two options. One was to remain silent and wait to be killed. And the second was to speak up and then be killed. I chose the second one. I decided to speak up.
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 2014
Novelist and essayist
I try but I can’t think of a single aspect of having cancer, start to finish, that isn’t an act in a pantomime in which my participation is guaranteed however I believe I choose to play…
Recorded · London Review of Books · 2014
Film critic
Thank God I found sobriety. I could sustain myself with my work, my reading, the movies, my friends. And walking, walking, walking.
Recorded · Roger Ebert's Journal, rogerebert.com · 2010
Neurobiologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1986
The two alternatives left then to us were either to emigrate to the United States, or to pursue some activity that needed neither support nor connection with the outside Aryan world where…
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 1986
Novelist
When Milton's Satan stood in the pit of hell and raged at heaven, he was merely a trifle miffed compared to how I felt on that day.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2008
Actor, director and producer
God has never let me down. He’s a key factor in guiding my decisions and feeling safe within them. My wife and I suffered three miscarriages, one of them quite late in the pregnancy.
Recorded · The Observer / The Guardian · 2025
Which book changed the way you think, and what did it change?
Atmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995
It was probably a series of biographies of scientists like Pasteur, or even earlier ones — Leeuwenhoek inventing the microscope and Madame Curie.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1996
39th President of the United States, 1977–1981; Governor of Georgia 1971–1975
When I was a young boy, [my schoolteacher Julia Coleman] introduced me to Leo Tolstoy's novel, "War and Peace." She interpreted that powerful narrative as a reminder that the simple human…
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 2002
Rock climber; first person to free solo El Capitan
some of the most noteworthy books I’ve read I guess, like A People’s History of the US, the Howard Zinn book totally changed the way I look at politics.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2018
Comedian and writer; co-creator of 2 Broke Girls
I believe that I had something called epigenetic imprinting, which I actually read about in a book called The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2018
Anti-apartheid lawyer; Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
I’d been introduced to Freud through all this because I couldn’t understand why is it so difficult to be brave.
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 2009
Computer scientist; co-founder of Affectiva
the thesis in the book is that computers need to understand human emotions just the way people do. I read the book and I was just fascinated by this idea.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2020
Everyone here · A–Z
Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Charlie Munger, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Christopher Hitchens, Derek Sivers, Desmond Tutu, Edmund Hillary, George H. W. Bush, John Lewis, Malala Yousafzai, Marina Abramović, Mario Molina, Mellody Hobson, Mohamed ElBaradei, Oliver Sacks, Richard Feynman, Serena Williams, Shinya Yamanaka, Simone Biles, Steve Jobs, Tony Judt, Warren Buffett, Winston Churchill