Princess Diana’s Quote of the Day: “I think the greatest disease the world suffers from today is…” | World News
Princess Diana made these remarks during a 1995 interview with BBC’s Martin Bashir, which became one of the most watched television programs in British history. “I think the biggest disease we have in the world today is a disease where people feel unloved,” she said. “I know I can give love for a minute, half an hour, a day, a month, but I can give it. I’m happy to do it, I want to do it.” She wasn’t describing an abstract idea. By that stage in her life, this attention to strangers had become almost a full-time job, performed in hospital wards and hospices that most public figures avoid entirely.
Princess Diana’s Quote of the Day
“I think the biggest disease we have in the world today is the disease of people feeling unloved.”
Diana’s most famous interviews
The interview, which aired on November 20, 1995, was known simply as “The Panorama Interview,” largely because Princess Diana said there were “three of us” in her marriage. This quote, which appears in the same conversation, explains in a quieter, less scandalous way the public role she really wanted.The interview later became controversial for different reasons. An investigation commissioned by the BBC in 2021 found that Bashir used deception, including forging documents, to convince Diana to agree to speak to him. This doesn’t change what she actually said after the cameras caught her, but it’s a fact worth knowing where it came from.
What did she actually do with the idea?
Diana’s understanding of giving love was rarely symbolic. In 1987, she was photographed holding the hand of a man dying of AIDS, a time when public fear of the disease was so great that many people avoided any physical contact with sufferers at all. She visited landmine survivors in Angola and Bosnia, walked through partially cleared minefields to draw attention to the issue, and spent time in hospices and children’s hospitals in her public life, often without the presence of news cameras.None of this addresses the larger issues she brought to the spotlight. What it does is give an individual—often someone the public has learned to avoid—a specific, personal moment of attention with the world watching.
Why this idea is still taking off
Feeling unloved does not mean not being loved. Diana’s words actually address the first question. Many people are surrounded by others but still feel invisible, invisible or unimportant, a disparity that has since become an officially recognized public health problem. The UK appointed a minister dedicated to loneliness in 2018, acknowledging that this disconnect has real, measurable costs.Diana’s answer to this gap is not a policy. It was time and attention given directly, without much ceremony, to anyone who happened to be in her presence.
A smaller version that anyone can try
You don’t need a public platform to apply this feature. A related skill is noticing that people around you may be quietly lacking attention, the co-worker who isn’t paying attention, the older relative who rarely gets a proper visit, the friend who is going through something that no one else has asked about.Diana’s own description is helpful here. She doesn’t claim to change anyone’s life permanently. She offers what she actually has, a minute, an hour, a day, and thinks it’s worth it, rather than something too small to be inconsequential.
Other quotes from Princess Diana
- “I want my children to understand people’s emotions, their insecurities, people’s pain, their hopes and dreams.”
- “I want to be the queen of people’s hearts, but I don’t see myself as the queen of this country.”
- “Perform a random act of kindness, without expecting anything in return, and have the comfort of knowing that one day someone might do the same for you.”
- “I think the British people need someone in public life who cares about them, makes them feel important, supports them and brings light to their dark tunnels.”
