Erin O'Connor
English model
To be humble is to be sane.
Time & hindsight
What lesson has mattered most in your life?
138 answers answered between 1956 and 2026 one of 25 in The Q&A
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
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You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
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Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.
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Joseph Fiennes
English actor
To fail better next time.
Kate Bowler
Historian of American Christianity; professor at Duke Divinity School
But cancer has also ushered in new ways of being alive. Even when I am this distant from Canadian family and friends, everything feels as if it is painted in bright colors. In my vulnerability, I am seeing my world without the Instagrammed filter of breezy certainties and perfectible moments. I can’t help noticing the brittleness of the walls that keep most people fed, sheltered and whole. I find myself returning to the same thoughts again and again: Life is so beautiful. Life is so hard.
Helen George
English actress
To let things go.
Daryl McCormack
Irish actor
To trust in the process.
Jack Whitehall
English comedian, actor, presenter and writer
Don’t make jokes at the expense of Little Mix. They have an ardent fanbase.
That life is tough and unfair; that life is beautiful.
Paapa Essiedu
British actor
To find as many moments to laugh as possible.
To be led by love and not judgment.
Nothing’s guaranteed and things change in an instant, and to get used to that and stay in the moment.
Block out the noise and trust your gut.
Eleanor Tomlinson
English actress
Talk to people. Learn from them. And put your phone away.
Rose Ayling-Ellis
British actress
You have to ride the wave and never wait for it to be calm, because it never will be.
One’s created sense of self is not who you are. The present moment is all we have.
That fear and excitement sometimes feel quite similar and you can misinterpret one for the other.
Offer kindness always.
Genuine love is given freely, not by force.
You can only do one thing at a time.
Want for your brothers and sisters what you want for yourself.
Know the things you are responsible for and the things you aren’t.
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