Quotes by "Nassim Nicholas Taleb"

Love without sacrifice is like theft

Things always become obvious after the fact

Reality is far more vicious than Russian roulette. First, it delivers the fatal bullet rather infrequently, like a revolver that would have hundreds, even thousands of chambers instead of six. After a few dozen tries, one forgets about the existence of a bullet, under a numbing false sense of security. Second, unlike a well-defined precise game like Russian roulette, where the risks are visible to anyone capable of multiplying and dividing by six, one does not observe the barrel of reality. One is capable of unwittingly playing Russian roulette - and calling it by some alternative “low risk” game.

If you want to annoy a poet, explain his poetry.

They will envy you for your success, your wealth, for your intelligence, for your looks, for your status - but rarely for your wisdom.

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

Wit seduces by signaling intelligence without nerdiness.

A prophet is not someone with special visions, just someone blind to most of what others see

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.

The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything

It takes a huge investment in introspection to learn that the thirty or more hours spent “studying” the news last month neither had any predictive ability during your activities of that month nor did it impact your current knowledge of the world.

You cannot do anything with knowledge unless you know where it stops, and the costs of using it.

The curious mind embraces science; the gifted and sensitive, the arts; the practical, business; the leftover becomes an economist

True, our knowledge does grow, but it is threatened by greater increases in confidence, which make our increase in knowledge at the same time an increase in confusion, ignorance, and conceit.

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.

What I learned on my own I still remember

The best philosophers were not academics, but had another job, so their philosophy was not corrupted by careerism.

When you ask people, 'What's the opposite of fragile?,' they tend to say robust, resilient, adaptable, solid, strong. That's not it. The opposite of fragile is something that gains from disorder.

You will get the most attention from those who hate you. No friend, no admirer and no partner will flatter you with as much curiosity.

Capitalism is about adventurers who get harmed by their mistakes, not people who harm others with their mistakes.