People on the record here who work in politics and public life, and what they were asked.
26 people · 57 answers
Prime Minister of Singapore, 1959–1990; Senior Minister 1990–2004; Minister Mentor 2004–2011
The sky has turned brighter. There is a glorious rainbow that beckons those with the spirit of adventure. And there are rich findings at the end of that rainbow.
Recorded · Petir (People's Action Party), reproducing the speech in full · 1996
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
President of Poland, 1990–1995; co-founder and chairman of the Solidarity trade union
When I recall my own path of life I cannot but speak of the violence, hatred and lies.
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 1983
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1993–2020; Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit 1980–1993
Having advanced well beyond what the French call "a certain age," I am often asked to convey to younger people helpful advice and counsel.
Recorded · New York Law School Law Review (digitalcommons.nyls.edu) · 1999
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1979–1990; Leader of the Conservative Party 1975–1990; MP for Finchley 1959–1992
You never follow the crowd. You work things out for yourself. And therefore if you think differently from the crowd, you must put your own view and try to get people taking your line.
Recorded · Margaret Thatcher Foundation, from Thatcher MSS (Churchill Archive Centre) · 1989
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
Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight.
Recorded · Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, The George Washington University · 1960
President of the Philippines, 1986–1992
I held out for participation in the 1984 election the dictatorship called, even if I knew it would be rigged.
Recorded · AmericanRhetoric.com · 1986
U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966
I would come home and ask my mother, my father, my grandparents, my great-grandparents, 'Why?'. And they would say, 'That's the way it is. Don't get in the way, don't get in trouble!'
Recorded · Speakola (speech transcript archive) · 2014
President of Costa Rica, 1986–1990 and 2006–2010
Seeing that the past dictatorships were only capable of creating misery and crippling hope, how absurd to pretend to cure the evils of one extreme dictatorship by means of its opposite!
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 1987
Prime Minister of New Zealand, 2017–2023; Leader of the Labour Party 2017–2023
There's a term that gets thrown around a lot – keyboard warrior. It's used to refer to someone who makes aggressive or abusive posts online, often anonymously. I like the name.
Recorded · Harvard Magazine · 2022
President of Czechoslovakia 1989–1992; President of the Czech Republic 1993–2003; playwright and dissident
The kind of hope I often think about (especially in situations that are particularly hopeless, such as prison) I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world.
Recorded · Václav Havel Library Foundation (havelcenter.org) · 1986
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1940–1945 and 1951–1955; Member of Parliament 1900–1964
You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are; yet without imagination not much can be done.
Recorded · International Churchill Society · 1941
Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Barbara Jordan, Corazon Aquino, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Frederick Douglass, Jacinda Ardern, Jimmy Carter, John Lewis, John McCain, Kofi Annan, Lech Wałęsa, Lee Kuan Yew, Malala Yousafzai, Margaret Thatcher, Martin Luther King Jr., Mikhail Gorbachev, Óscar Arias Sánchez, Ronald Reagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Theodore Roosevelt, Václav Havel, Wangari Maathai, Winston Churchill