Abraham Lincoln to Congress in 1862, via Sir Ken Robinson at TED 2010. I love that these words speak to so many contemporary issues: social, political, and most especially environmental.

The very wonderful Sir Ken Robinson @TEDtalks picking up where he left off at TED 2006. “So as I was saying…”

My favourite quotes from this year’s talk:

“There are people who love what they do. Because isn’t what they do, it’s who they are. They say, ‘but this is me, it would be foolish for me to abandon this because it speaks to my most authentic self.’”

“Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent, not a singular conception of ability.”

“It’s about passion and what excites our spirit and our energy. If you are doing the thing that you love to do, that you’re good at, time takes a different course entirely… If you’re doing something you love an hour feels like five minutes. If you’re doing something that doesn’t resonate with your spirit five minutes feels like an hour.”

“We have to recognise that human flourishing is not a mechanical process, it’s an organic process. You cannot predict the outcome of human development, all you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish.”