Nassim Nicholas Taleb quotes - page 6

The curious mind embraces science; the gifted and sensitive, the arts; the practical, business; the leftover becomes an economist. (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
Suckers try to win arguments, nonsuckers try to win. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market alow you to put there. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The problem of knowledge is that there are many more books on birds written by ornithologists than books on birds written by birds and books on ornithologists written by birds. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
My biggest problem with modernity may lie in the growing separation of the ethical and the legal. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Things always become obvious after the fact. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Heroes are heroes because they are heroic in behavior, not because they won or lost. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Half of the people lie with their lips; the other half with their tears. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
What I learned on my own I still remember. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
They will envy you for your success, your wealth, for your intelligence, for your looks, for your status - but rarely for your wisdom. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Missing a train is only painful if you run after it! Likewise, not matching the idea of success others expect from you is only painful if that's what you are seeking. (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
Probability is not a mere computation of odds on the dice or more complicated variants; it is the acceptance of the lack of certainty in our knowledge and the development of methods for dealing with our ignorance. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Modernity has replaced ethics with legalese. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
true humility is when you can surprise yourself more than others; the rest is either shyness or good marketing. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The imagination of the genius vastly surpasses his intellect; the intellect of the academic vastly surpasses his imagination. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The inability to predict outliers implies the inability to predict the course of history. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
To bankrupt a fool, give him information. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
By all means, avoid words-threats, complaints, justification, narratives, reframing, attempts to win arguments, supplications; avoid words! View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
In poor countries, officials receive explicit bribes; in D. C. they get the sophisticated, implicit, unspoken promise to work for large corporations. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Karl Marx, a visionary, figured out that you can control a slave much better by convincing him he is an employee. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
This is the tragedy of modernity: as with neurotically overprotective parents, those trying to help are often hurting us the most. (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)
My best definition of a nerd: someone who asks you to explain an aphorism. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
You exist if and only if you are free to do things without a visible objective, with no justification and, above all, outside the dictatorship of someone else's narrative. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Our greatest asset is the one we distrust the most: the built-in antifragility of certain risk-taking systems. View quote
Nassim Nicholas Taleb