“There is no hierarchy of values by which one culture has the right to insist on all its own values and deny those of another.”

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

It is utterly false and cruelly arbitrary. to put all the play and learning into childhood, all the work into middle age, and all the regrets into old age.

You can never have a relationship with someone whose smell you don’t like.

We grow up never questioning that which is unquestioned around us.

Where we choose to put our attention changes our brain, which in time can change how we see and interact with the world.

Manners, really good ones, make it possible to live with almost anyone, gracefully and pleasantly.

An education not founded on Art will never succeed.

The most intractable problem today is not pollution or technology or war; but the lack of belief that the future is very much in the hands of the individual.

To demand that another love what one loves is tyranny enough, but to demand that another hate what one hates, is even worse.

If one cannot state a matter clearly enough so that even an intelligent twelve-year-old can understand it, one should remain within the cloistered walls of the university and laboratory until one gets a better grasp of one’s subject matter.

Human beings seem to hold on more tenaciously to a cultural identity that is learned through suffering than to one that has been acquired through pleasure and delight.

A city is a place where there is no need to wait for next week to get the answer to a question, to taste the food of any country, to find new voices to listen to and familiar ones to listen to again.

If the future is to remain open and free, we need people who can tolerate the unknown, who will not need the support of completely worked out systems or traditional blueprints from the past.

Humanity lies in man’s capacity to question the known and imagine the unknown.

There is no evidence that suggests women are naturally better at caring for children… with the fact of child-bearing out of the centre of attention, there is even more reason for treating girls first as human beings, then as women.

Many societies have educated their male children on the simple device of teaching them not to be women.

Music knows no barrier of age or culture. It isn’t about being politically correct or even making a statement. Music is what appeals to the ears and touches your soul.

I’m a fan of mixing cultures together.

Our culture says that ruthless competition is the key to success. Jesus says that ruthless compassion is the purpose of our journey.

I was raised well. My parents are from Nigeria; their culture is respectful. Very respectful. But I learnt that you have to be determined. It’s not violence or aggression. It’s sheer determination.

It’s celebrated in British culture to be eccentric.

It’s too much of a drinking culture, everything tastes better with a drink. Like, watch TV: glass of wine. Cooking dinner: glass of champagne. White wine vinegar hasn’t got white wine in it. Has it?

I like the little bit of distance that London affords me and I like living in a world capital. I like having the culture at my fingertips.

In this culture of winners and losers. Your trauma is your trauma. This is not a measuring contest of pain.