The rationalist imagines an imbecile-free society; the empiricist and imbecile-proof one, or even better, a rationalist-proof one.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

There is a saying that bad traders divorce their spouse sooner than abandon their positions. Loyalty to ideas is not a good thing for traders, scientists - or anyone.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

. . . The world in which we live has an increasing number of feedback loops, causing events to be the cause of more events (say, people buy a book because other people bought it), thus generating snowballs and arbitrary and unpredictable planet-wide winner-take-all effects.

— 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.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Things always become obvious after the fact

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

To bankrupt a fool, give him information.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Under opacity and in the newfound complexity of the world, people can hide risks and hurt others, with the law incapable of catching them. Iatrogenic has both delayed and invisible consequences. It is hard to see causal links, to fully understand what’s going on. Under such epistemic limitations, skin in the game is the only true litigator of fragility.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb