Nassim Nicholas Taleb Quotes

Increasingly, data can only truly deliver via negativa–style knowledge — it can be effectively used to debunk, not confirm.

A reminder that the job of the government is to deliver Peace and Prosperity.

In general, positive Black Swans take time to show their effect while negative ones happen very quickly — it is much easier and much faster to destroy than to build.

Quite revealing of human preferences that more suicides come from shame or loss of financial and social status than medical diagnoses.

The only definition of an alpha male: if you try to be an alpha male, you will never be one.

If the professor is not capable of giving a class without preparation, don’t attend. People should only teach what they have learned organically, through experience and curiosity…or get another job.

We humans lack imagination, to the point of not even knowing what tomorrow's important things will look like.

It is remarkable how fast and how effectively you can construct a nationality with a flag, a few speeches, and a national anthem; to this day I avoid the label "Lebanese," preferring the less restrictive "Levantine" designation.

People who are bred, selected, and compensated to find complicated solutions do not have an incentive to implement simplified ones.

The sucker overestimates the value of secret information when the important stuff is that huge elephant in front if us all.

Academia is to knowledge what prostitution is to love.

I fail to see the difference between extreme wealth and overdose.

Critics may appear to blame the author for not writing the book they wanted to read; but in truth they are blaming him for writing the book they wanted, but were unable, to write.

Religions are not quite religions: some are philosophies, others are just legal systems.

As Ennius wrote, “The good is mostly in the absence of bad”; Nimium boni est, cui nihil est mali.