Values & belief

What have you come to understand about what it means to be human?

31 answers answered between 1991 and 2026

Originally asked

Krista Tippett, to her guests, On Being

Krista Tippett uses this as a recurring, sometimes-closing On Being question; the wording is intentionally adapted to each guest.

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

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On the record

Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.

Jacqueline Novogratz Founder and chief executive of Acumen
One of the biggest lessons of my life, Krista, has been that we can’t separate the world into monsters and angels and that there’s nothing like loving people and knowing friends who played different roles in the genocide, including being perpetrators, that makes you have to confront that most raw element of what it means to be human. And the only conclusion I could make was that there are monsters and angels in each of us and that those monsters really are our broken parts — they’re our insecurities; they’re our fears; they’re our shames — and that in times of insecurity, it becomes really easy for demagogues to prey on those broken parts and sometimes make us do terrible things to each other.
Recorded Krista Tippett, On Being with Krista Tippett, The On Being Project, 2020 source ↗
Henry R. Kravis Financier; co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
today, I'm a very happy man, not because of financial success, but because of the people in my life.
Recorded KKR, 2024 source ↗
Mellody Hobson Co-chief executive and president of Ariel Investments
I could be strong and not tough. I could be kind without being soft. ... But in that moment, that olive branch of kindness was actually one that became a physical hug, and I think it taught me and the room a lot. And I said: You know what? I think this is an advantage.
Recorded Kathleen J. McInnis, Smart Women, Smart Power podcast, Center for Strategic and International Studies, 28 August 2024 source ↗
Warren Buffett Chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, 1970–2025
Well, I won't say what I thought about them, particularly related to Bill Gates, but I would say it's astounding to me how human people are. I mean, it, here you had a guy that was a convicted guy, a sensational con man, and the percentage of people that he knocked off. I mean, whether it was, he found their weakness, it might have been sex. It might be power, it might be, whatever it might be.
Recorded Becky Quick, CNBC “Squawk Box”, recorded in Omaha; CNBC's own transcript of its own broadcast, 31 March 2026 source ↗

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