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.
For a birthday, a quiet Sunday, or the week you realise you have been answering other people's priorities. Not a goal worksheet — the questions people answer differently at fifty than at twenty-five.
26 people · 194 answers
United States Senator from Arizona, 1987–2018; U.S. Representative 1983–1987; Republican nominee for President in 2008
Recorded · CNN · 2018
Do not despair of our present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender.
Chancellor of Germany, 2005–2021; Leader of the Christian Democratic Union 2000–2018
Recorded · The Harvard Gazette, Harvard University · 2019
Tear down walls of ignorance and narrow-mindedness, for nothing has to stay as it is.
Founder of the Green Belt Movement; Member of Parliament for Tetu, Kenya, 2002–2007; Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources 2003–2005
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 2004
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.
South Africa international rugby union flanker and captain
Recorded · Red Bull · 2019
To be remembered for all the things that you do and as someone who makes people smile, touches people's lives – that is what should wake you up every single morning.
Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1997–2006
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 2001
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.
India Test and one-day international cricketer, 1996–2012; later India head coach
Recorded · ESPNcricinfo · 2011
One of the things, Bradman said has stayed in my mind.
Co-founder of LinkedIn; partner at Greylock Partners
Recorded · Reid Hoffman on Medium
The challenge of a big, over-arching vision is that it's hard to know where to start. And your biggest opportunity will change from year to year. Technology changes. Competition changes.
Engineer and designer; led the iPod and iPhone teams at Apple, founder of Nest Labs
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2016
Learn by doing, not learn first, then do. The way you discover what it is you like to do in life is by doing first, then learning about it.
United States international footballer, 2006–2023
Recorded · The Players' Tribune · 2016
Even more simply, you can ask yourself this question: "Do I truly care about equality for all people in this country?" If the answer is yes, then demand to be a better, more educated, more…
Mountaineer and explorer; first ascent of Everest, 1953
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 1991
I would advise them to aim high. To set their sights at a pretty tough target and don’t be too worried if you’re not successful at first.
Co-founder of Andela and of Flutterwave; founding partner of Future Africa
Recorded · Iyinoluwa Aboyeji on LinkedIn · 2024
Do a deep reflection on what exactly went wrong and write it down. Please don't do that lazy analysis where you just blame government, the economy, the markets, fundraising etc.
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
Recorded · Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, The George Washington University · 1960
Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight.
Economist and philosopher; laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, 1998
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 1998
This was a co-educational school, with many progressive features.
26th President of the United States, 1901–1909; Governor of New York 1899–1900; Assistant Secretary of the Navy 1897–1898
Recorded · The American Presidency Project, University of California Santa Barbara · 1910
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!
Poet and essayist; Nobel laureate in Literature, 1996
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation (nobelprize.org) · 1996
All sorts of torturers, dictators, fanatics, and demagogues struggling for power by way of a few loudly shouted slogans also enjoy their jobs, and they too perform their duties with…
Author and marketer; founder of Yoyodyne and Squidoo
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2020
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.
Founder and former chief executive of Amazon; founder of Blue Origin
Recorded · Princeton University · 2010
What I want to talk to you about today is the difference between gifts and choices. Cleverness is a gift, kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy — they're given after all. Choices can be hard.
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
Recorded · ABC News · 2011
Security. People naturally resist change in our personal lives.
Co-founder of Viaweb and of the startup accelerator Y Combinator; essayist
Recorded · paulgraham.com · 2016
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.
Theoretical physicist; Nobel laureate in Physics, 1965
Recorded · Engineering and Science / Caltech Magazine · 1976
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.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1940–1945 and 1951–1955; Member of Parliament 1900–1964
Recorded · The American Presidency Project · 1941
I hope not too much on them.
Photojournalist and war photographer; Pulitzer Prize winner, 2009
Recorded · Academy of Achievement (achievement.org)
I think I naturally felt like I needed to pull back, and maybe that’s one of the reasons why I decided to get pregnant then because I was 37, and I had Lukas at 38.
Novelist and short-story writer
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
Don’t read your reviews. […] Don’t write reviews. (Your judgment’s always tainted.) […] Don’t write letters to the editor. (No one cares.)
British swimmer; Olympic champion 2016 and 2021
Recorded · The Independent · 2023
I'm tired, I'm not myself and I'm not enjoying the sport as I have done for the last decade.
Essayist, critic and journalist
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2011
Deprivation of the ability to speak is more like an attack of impotence, or the amputation of part of the personality. To a great degree, in public and private, I “was” my voice.
Civil-rights activist
Recorded · Academy of Achievement
Back in Montgomery during my growing up there, it was completely legally enforced racial segregation, and of course, I struggled against it for a long time.
Education campaigner; co-founder of the Malala Fund; United Nations Messenger of Peace
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 2014
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.
Jazz tenor saxophonist and composer
Recorded · Academy of Achievement (achievement.org)
I went through some really terrible times. I don’t know whether I should really even mention it, but you mentioned that I had to go to prison and all that stuff.
Pharmaceutical chemist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2015
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 2015
I unfortunately contracted tuberculosis at the age of sixteen and had to take a two-year break and receive treatment at home before I resumed my study at the private Ningbo Xiaoshi High…
British Formula One driver
Recorded · Sky Sports · 2023
For me, school was probably the most traumatising and most difficult part of my life. I already was being bullied at the age of six.
Co-founder of Reddit; founder of Seven Seven Six
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2020
That really crystallized for me what some really passionate founders who could write some code could do to change things, and this gave me the confidence to say, “You know what?
39th President of the United States, 1977–1981; Governor of Georgia 1971–1975
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 2002
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…
Investor; early finance executive at PayPal and Palantir
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2022
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. That book changed my life, blew my mind. If you’re going to read that book, take it slow in my opinion.
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1988–2018
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 2005
I think fiction is very important because it gets us into the mind of a person. Hamlet is a tremendous piece of literature. You know Hamlet better than you know most real people.
Poet
Recorded · The Paris Review, Issue 122, Spring 1992 · 1992
Very much so. I went to synagogue regularly. My first education was interpreting the Bible.
War correspondent and author; co-director of the documentary Restrepo
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2018
It’s amazing. I just started looking at everything differently. I love that book. But a book is a kind of thing of magic. It contains a universe of information.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Charlie Munger, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, David Vélez, Derek Sivers, Desmond Tutu, Edmund Hillary, George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, 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