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 · The Harvard Gazette, Harvard University · 2019
Taking stock
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.
121 people · 145 answers
If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why?
United States international footballer, 2001–2015
GIVE ME THE RESPECT I'VE EARNED AND GIVE IT TO MY WOLF PACK TOO.
Recorded · Speakola · 2018
Theoretical physicist; Nobel laureate in Physics, 1965
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that.
Recorded · Caltech Engineering and Science (Caltech Library archive) · 1974
Prime Minister of New Zealand, 2017–2023; Leader of the Labour Party 2017–2023
We are the richer for our difference, and poorer for our division.
Recorded · Harvard Magazine · 2022
Founder of The Vanguard Group, 1974
There's the world's work to be done, and there are never enough citizens with determined hearts, courageous character, intelligent minds, and idealistic souls to do it.
Recorded · Georgetown University / johncbogle.com · 2007
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 · Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, The George Washington University · 1944
What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore?
Founder and long-serving chairman of FedEx Corporation
The most important piece of advice that I could give them is to take advantage of the tremendous reservoir of knowledge that’s out there today.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1998
Electrical engineer and astronaut; director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, 2013–2018
It’s a very interesting and challenging field! It’s important to study math and science throughout high school and college, and major in some technical area.
Recorded · National Women’s History Museum · 2018
Novelist and short-story writer
Write slowly and by hand only about subjects that interest you. […] Develop craftsmanship through years of wide reading.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
Plant pathologist and agronomist; Nobel Peace Prize, 1970
Study broadly. Don’t specialize too early. Read history.
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 2008
Physician and medical anthropologist; co-founder of Partners In Health
I think a lot of people, when they’re really young, and in their 20s, they are on their own quest for personal efficacy. And I understand that. ...
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 2009
Field biologist and conservationist; Wildlife Conservation Society
Certainly, if you want to get into the field of biology these days, you should also study anthropology because so much work now is with communities. How do you help communities?
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 2017
What is the most overrated virtue?
Founder and former chief executive of Amazon; founder of Blue Origin
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.
Recorded · Princeton University · 2010
Poet and essayist; Nobel laureate in Literature, 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…
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation (nobelprize.org) · 1996
Creator of the Linux kernel and of Git
I've actually felt slightly uncomfortable at TED for the last two days, because there's a lot of vision going on, right? And I am not a visionary. I do not have a five-year plan.
Recorded · TED (transcript of the TED2016 interview) · 2016
Author and marketer; founder of Yoyodyne and Squidoo
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.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2020
Economist and philosopher; laureate of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, 1998
This was a co-educational school, with many progressive features.
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 1998
26th President of the United States, 1901–1909; Governor of New York 1899–1900; Assistant Secretary of the Navy 1897–1898
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!
Recorded · The American Presidency Project, University of California Santa Barbara · 1910
In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to?
Novelist, dramatist and screenwriter
Do restrict your browsing to a few websites a day. Don’t go near the online bookies – unless it’s research. […] Do not search amazon.co.uk for the book you haven’t written yet.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
United States sprinter, 2003–2022
What I'm not willing to accept is the enduring status quo around maternity.
Recorded · The New York Times · 2019
Veterinary surgeon and immunologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1996
On returning to Brisbane, I realised fairly quickly that I am an experimentalist at heart. A career as a diagnostic virologist was not for me!
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 1996
Japanese professional tennis player
I communicated that I wanted to skip press conferences at Roland Garros to exercise self-care and preservation of my mental health. I stand by that. Athletes are humans.
Recorded · Time · 2021
Co-founder of Viaweb and of the startup accelerator Y Combinator; essayist
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.
Recorded · paulgraham.com · 2016
Novelist and essayist
Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it?
Pharmaceutical chemist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 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…
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 2015
Jazz tenor saxophonist and composer
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.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement (achievement.org)
Education campaigner; co-founder of the Malala Fund; United Nations Messenger of Peace
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.
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 2014
Neurobiologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 1986
The two alternatives left then to us were either to emigrate to the United States, or to pursue some activity that needed neither support nor connection with the outside Aryan world where…
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 1986
British Formula One driver
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.
Recorded · Sky Sports · 2023
Playwright, director and actor
I don’t think I could. Of course I’m saying this on American soil. I’m facing a few more months of work in this city, but at the end of it, I will be returning to South Africa.
Recorded · The Paris Review, Issue 111, Summer 1989 · 1985
Which book changed the way you think, and what did it change?
Neurosurgeon; chair of neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
I remember reading The Making of a Surgeon when I was in probably about the sixth or seventh grade. And that was a book that kind of got me focused, I think, on the career path.
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 2001
Computer scientist; co-founder of Affectiva
the thesis in the book is that computers need to understand human emotions just the way people do. I read the book and I was just fascinated by this idea.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2020
Marine biologist and oceanographer; first woman to serve as Chief Scientist of NOAA
I fell in love with the stories by William Beebe, who was an ocean explorer.
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 1991
War correspondent and author; co-director of the documentary Restrepo
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.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2018
Founder of Teach For America; chief executive of Teach For All
The Fountainhead , I think, pretty much saved me in the initial years of Teach For America. I loved that book, but I’m not sure books were the seminal thing that guided my path. ...
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 2013
Neurologist and writer
The first biography I read — I think the first scientific biography — was Madame Curie . And my mother, who was a surgeon, worked at the Marie Curie Hospital.
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 2000
Everyone here · A–Z
Abby Wambach, Adam Peaty, Ahmed Zewail, Akio Toyoda, Albie Sachs, Alex Honnold, Alexis Ohanian, Allyson Felix, Amartya Sen, Amy Tan, Andrew Young, Angela Merkel, Annie Proulx, Anthony Kennedy, Athol Fugard, Benazir Bhutto, Bill Gates, Brian Chesky, Carlos Slim Helú, Charlie Munger, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Colm Tóibín, David Oyelowo, Debbie Millman, Denis Mukwege, Denton Cooley, Desmond Tutu, Edmund Hillary, Eleanor Roosevelt, Elie Wiesel, Eliud Kipchoge, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Ellen Ochoa, Fei-Fei Li, Frank M. Johnson Jr., Frederick Sanger, Frederick W. Smith, George Schaller, Grace Hopper, Henry R. Kravis, Indra Nooyi, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, J.K. Rowling, Jacinda Ardern, Jason Portnoy, Jeanette Winterson, Jeff Bezos, Jimmy Carter, John C. Bogle, John Lewis, John McCain, John Vervaeke, Joyce Carol Oates, Jürgen Klopp, Keith Black, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Kofi Annan, Lech Wałęsa, Lee Kuan Yew, Lewis Hamilton, Leymah Gbowee, Linus Torvalds, Lynsey Addario, Malala Yousafzai, Marcus Rashford, Margaret Thatcher, Marina Abramović, Martin Luther King Jr., Marvin Minsky, Megan Rapinoe, Mellody Hobson, Mikhail Gorbachev, Muhammad Yunus, Naomi Osaka, Nicholas Kristof, Nobu Matsuhisa, Nora Ephron, Norman Borlaug, Oliver Sacks, Ory Okolloh, Óscar Arias Sánchez, Patti Smith, Paul Farmer, Paul Graham, Peter Doherty, Rahul Dravid, Rana el Kaliouby, Ratan Tata, Richard Feynman, Richard Ford, Richard Leakey, Rita Levi-Montalcini, Roddy Doyle, Ronald Reagan, Rosa Parks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sebastian Junger, Serena Williams, Seth Godin, Simone Biles, Siya Kolisi, Sonny Rollins, Steve Jobs, Susan Butcher, Susan Wojcicki, Suzan-Lori Parks, Suzanne Farrell, Sylvia Earle, Theodore Roosevelt, Tim O'Reilly, Tony Fadell, Tu Youyou, Wangari Maathai, Wendy Kopp, Werner Herzog, Whitney Cummings, Willem Kolff, Willie Mays, Wisława Szymborska, Yehuda Amichai, Zadie Smith