You can define a free person precisely as someone whose fate is not centrally or directly dependent on peer assessment. - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

You need a story to displace a story. Metaphors and stories are far more potent (alas) than ideas; they are also easier to remember and more fun to read. If I have to go after what I call the narrative disciplines, my best tool is a narrative.

Ideas come and go, stories stay.

The best revenge on a liar is to convince him that you believe what he said.

"There is something like a switch in us that kills the individual in favor of the collective when people engage in communal dances, mass riots, or war. Your mood is now that of the herd. You are part of what Elias Canetti calls the rhythmic and throbbing crowd." - Taleb