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Time & hindsight

If you could put a message on a giant billboard, what would it say and why?

25 answers answered between 1944 and 2026

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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.

Read by field Everyone Science and medicine 4 Politics and public life 12 Business and finance 3 Sport 4
Read by age Any age Before thirty 3 In their thirties 3 In their forties 2 In their fifties 3 In their sixties 8 Seventy and beyond 4
Order Earliest first Most recent Surprise me
Eleanor Roosevelt 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
If silence seems to give approval, then remaining silent is cowardly.
Recorded 'If You Ask Me' column, Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, The George Washington University, September 1944 source ↗
Mikhail Gorbachev General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1985–1991; President of the Soviet Union 1990–1991
Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences.
Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 5 June 1991 source ↗
Kofi Annan 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. The sovereignty of States must no longer be used as a shield for gross violations of human rights. Peace must be made real and tangible in the daily existence of every individual in need. Peace must be sought, above all, because it is the condition for every member of the human family to live a life of dignity and security.
Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 10 December 2001 source ↗
Wangari Maathai 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. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.
Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 10 December 2004 source ↗
Aung San Suu Kyi Leader of the National League for Democracy; Nobel Peace Prize laureate; State Counsellor of Myanmar, 2016–2021
As you look at me and listen to me, please remember the often repeated truth that one prisoner of conscience is one too many.
Recorded Oslo City Hall, The Nobel Foundation, 16 June 2012 source ↗
Angela Merkel Chancellor of Germany, 2005–2021; Leader of the Christian Democratic Union 2000–2018
Tear down walls of ignorance and narrow-mindedness, for nothing has to stay as it is.
Recorded Tercentenary Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Harvard Gazette, Harvard University, 30 May 2019 source ↗

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