Diane Abbott
It is important to be philosophical in politics, otherwise you could not tolerate "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune". The single most important piece of philosophy I know about politics was passed on to me 22 years ago when I was a very new MP. Tony Banks MP was a dear friend who has since passed away. But within weeks of my entering Parliament, he told me: "In politics, your opponents are in the other party, but your enemies are in your own party." This is something that my leader, Gordon Brown, has had reason to contemplate recently.
Diane Abbott is MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington
Karol Sikora
Severe delays on all lines: "When I was at home I was in a better place, but travellers must be content" (Shakespeare). The Circle Line is running again: "A matter that becomes clear ceases to concern us" (Nietzsche). We will be stopping here for at least an hour: "Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim" (Greene). Signal failure at Bethnal Green: "Delay is preferable to error" (Jefferson). Person under a train at Holborn: "A man's dying is more the survivors' affair than his own" (Mann). Our driver failed to turn up: "Bad excuses are worse than none" (Fuller).
Karol Sikora is a cancer specialist
Mary Warnock
I wouldn't ever be much soothed by anything Sartre wrote. It would be too long and convoluted and full of words like Nothingness and Nausea. But for the tube, there's always Hell is Other People, which might seem both true and short. I'd prefer the Greek nugget, discussed by Aristotle, Nothing Too Much. What could be more apposite, when standing jammed between huge men with excessively long shorts and enormous backpacks, taking the space of four? Waiting for a train, we might be comforted to hear that Time is Unreal.
Mary Warnock is a philosopher and crossbench peer
Barbara Gunnell
What a great follow-up to the Poetry on the Underground initiative! But philosophers can be dry and their apophthegms a little prescriptive. We need Confucius. His Analects might have been written for a train driver with a scratchy intercom. It's all in the quizzical style. Here are the first three. To learn something and put it into practice, is that not a joy? To have a friend visit from afar, is that not a great pleasure? To find a seat on the Northern Line, is that not a true blessing? The last one, I admit, may be poorly translated.