Physical Environments: Shaping and Being Shaped
“Man is a geological force — comparable to the slow work of a river or a glacier.”
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
The Phenomenon of Man. 1955
Food and Fire: The Fuel of Civilisation
“The flame is a symbol of every kind of life, and fire is a phenomenon of great antiquity.”
Gaston Bachelard
Psychoanalysis of Fire. 1938
The Built Environment: Learning its Language
“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”
Winston Churchill
Address to the House of Commons 28 October 1943.
Might: The Power of Force
“Power is not brute force and sheer might. It’s the highest form of discipline, the ability to control one’s self and one’s own feelings.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching. 1998
Faith: Making Sense of the Unknown
“A myth is a public dream, and a dream is a private myth.”
Joseph Campbell
The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 1949
Law: Diktat to the Rules Based World Order
“Where law ends, tyranny begins.”
John Locke
Second Treatise of Government. 1689
Justice: Balancing Power and Access
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Letter from Birmingham Jail. 1963
Politics: Institutions and Collective Power
“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable.”
Otto von Bismarck
Attributed late 19th Century.
Culture: Shaping Our World
“How do you get two million strangers to cooperate? All they have to do is believe in a shared fiction.”
Yuval Noah Harari
Sapiens: A Brief History of HumanKind. 2011
Fourth Estate: Media and the Court of Public Opinion
“The best propaganda is that which, as it were, allows the other side to supply the evidence.”
Noam Chomsky
Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda. 1991
Navigating Exclusion: Gender, Sexuality, and Race
“If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.”
Toni Morrison
O, The Oprah Magazine April 2005.
Wealth: A Matter of Money
“Every dollar is a claim on wealth created by the society; it is a voucher, a ticket, a coupon that entitles the holder to wealth.”
Abba Lerner
The Economic Theory of Monopoly. 1934
Corporations: Ancient Entities, Global Influence
“The business of business is not business; it’s the future of life.”
Paul Polman
Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take. 2021
Economics: A Social Science
“The ultimate purpose of economics is to promote the flourishing of human life.”
Gary S. Becker
Nobel Prize Lecture. 1992
Civil Society: Association and Moral Ambition
“The health of a democracy is measured by the quality of functioning of its civil society.”
Václav Havel
Speech. 1990
The Individual: Who Am I? What Am I?
“To thine own self be true.”
William Shakespeare
Hamlet c. 1600.
Play: It’s Serious Stuff
“Play is the highest form of research.”
Albert Einstein
Attributed undated.
Education: Shaping Minds, Unleashing Potential
“Education isn’t something you can finish.”
Isaac Asimov
Attributed undated.
Health: A Holistic Approach
“Look well to the health of the body, for the soul must live there.”
Plato
Attributed.
Attitude: Feelings vs Values
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
Viktor Frankl
Man’s Search for Meaning. 1946
Repentant: The Power of Self Honesty
“The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”
Thomas Jefferson
Attributed 1790.
Networking: Who we Know and Those in the Know
“The currency of life is not money, but connection.”
Keith Ferrazzi
Never Eat Alone. 2005
Dysfunction: Disempowering Ourselves and Others
“If you want to rebel, know that the mind is the first enemy that you must overcome.”
Paulo Coelho
Manuscript Found in Accra. 2012
Transcendent: New Habits, New You
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Will Durant (Interpreting Aristotle)
The Story of Philosophy. 1926
Transition: From Here to Where?
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
Peter Drucker
Innovation and Entrepreneurship. 1985
Humanism: Learning and Living
“I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of my being in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.”
Jack London
The Call of the Wild. 1903
New Economies: Models & Governance
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
R. Buckminster Fuller
Attributed mid-20th Century.
Net-Zero: Transition & Green Growth
“The future is here – it’s just not evenly distributed.”
William Gibson
The Economist. 1992
Food Abundance: Restoring Ecosystems
“The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Letter to all State Governors 1937.
Jobs: Re-evaluating Work
“The great secret of joy is to put one’s heart into every little thing one does.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
The Miracle of Mindfulness. 1975
Housing: Building Progress
“We are the builders of a new world, who are laying the foundation in suffering but who will raise the roof in joy.”
Nikolai Chernyshevsky
What Is to Be Done? 1863
Homes First: A Functioning Philosophy
“If a house is to be built, it must first be placed upon a firm foundation.”
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching c. 4th Century BC.
Emotional & Mental Resilience: Reclaimed
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.”
Viktor Frankl
Man’s Search for Meaning. 1946
Addiction: The Ache for Connection
“Gambling won’t build our country for the next generation, but children, freed from poverty, will.”
Gordon Brown
Speech 2007.
Immigration and Asylum: Threat or Tragedy
“If we cannot live together, we will die together.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
Speech 1964.
Prisons: Stick and Carrot
“What else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them?”
Sir Thomas More
Utopia. 1516
Debt Forgiveness: We All Prosper
“The debt which the poor can pay is not in money, — and that debt is soon discharged.”
Henry Ward Beecher
Life Thoughts. 1858
Beyond the Echo-Chamber: Solving Complex Issues
“There are no right answers to wrong questions.”
Ursula K. Le Guin
The Left Hand of Darkness. 1969
AI: Ethics and Environmental Questions
“If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.”
Omar Bradley
Address 1948.
AI as an Enabler: Redefining Human Potential
“Leisure and curiosity are the two factors which drive human progress.”
Stephen Hawking
A Brief History of Time. 1988
Charity: The Agile Gift
“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
Lilla Watson
Attributed 1970s.
Social Change: What Actually Works
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”
Albert Einstein
Letter 1946.
Truth to Power: History of Protest
“The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.”
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching c. 4th Century BC.
Protest and the State: Challenging Vested Power
“When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.”
Thomas Jefferson
Attributed undated.
Whistleblowers: Injustice met with Courage
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
Edmund Burke
Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents. 1770
War: The Ultimate Failure
“Violence is the last resort of the incompetent.”
Isaac Asimov
Foundation. 1951