1
Wit seduces by signaling intelligence without nerdiness.Nassim Nicholas Taleb
2
A prophet is not someone with special visions, just someone blind to most of what others seeNassim Nicholas Taleb
3
The curious mind embraces science; the gifted and sensitive, the arts; the practical, business; the leftover becomes an economistNassim Nicholas Taleb
4
Meditation is a way to be narcissistic without hurting anyoneNassim Nicholas Taleb
5
Just as no monkey is as good-looking as the ugliest of humans, no academic is worthier than the worst of the creatorsNassim Nicholas Taleb
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What I learned on my own I still rememberNassim Nicholas Taleb
7
In the past, only some of the males, but all of the females, were able to procreate. Equality is more natural for females.Nassim Nicholas Taleb
8
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 birdsNassim Nicholas Taleb
9
When you beat up someone physically, you get excercise and stress relief; when you assault him verbally on the Internet, you just harm yourself.Nassim Nicholas Taleb
10
My biggest problem with modernity may lie in the growing separation of the ethical and the legalNassim Nicholas Taleb
11
In poor countries, officials receive explicit bribes; in D.C. they get the sophisticated, implicit, unspoken promise to work for large corporationsNassim Nicholas Taleb
12
The rationalist imagines an imbecile-free society; the empiricist and imbecile-proof one, or even better, a rationalist-proof one.Nassim Nicholas Taleb
13
English does not distinguish between arrogant-up (irreverence toward the temporarily powerful) and arrogant-down (directed at the small guy).Nassim Nicholas Taleb
14
Modernity: we created youth without heroism, age without wisdom, and life without grandeurNassim Nicholas Taleb
15
They will envy you for your success, your wealth, for your intelligence, for your looks, for your status - but rarely for your wisdom.Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Love without sacrifice is like theftNassim Nicholas Taleb
17
Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed.Nassim Nicholas Taleb
18
What organized dating sites fail to understand is that the people are far more interesting in what they don't say about themselves.Nassim Nicholas Taleb
19
Academia is to knowledge what prostitution is to love; close enough on the surface but, to the nonsucker, not exactly the same thingNassim Nicholas Taleb
20
Suckers think that you cure greed with money, addiction with substances, expert problems with experts, banking with bankers, economics with economists, and debt crises with debt spendingNassim Nicholas Taleb
21
The best way to measure the loss of intellectual sophistication - this "nerdification, " to put it bluntly - is in the growing disappearance of sarcasm, as mechanic minds take insults a bit too literally.Nassim Nicholas Taleb
22
If you want to annoy a poet, explain his poetry.Nassim Nicholas Taleb
23
To bankrupt a fool, give him information.Nassim Nicholas Taleb