Modernity has replaced ethics with legalese, and the law can be gamed with a good lawyer. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
The best philosophers were not academics, but had another job, so their philosophy was not corrupted by careerism. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
For the classics philosophical insight was the product of a life of leisure; for me a life of leisure is the product… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“He provides the example of a philosopher who puzzles about the reality of time, but who nonetheless applies for a research grant… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Philosophers talk about truth and falsehood. People in life talk about payoff, exposure, and consequences (risks and rewards), hence fragility and antifragility.… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“There are some people who, if they don't already know, you can't tell them. As the great philosopher of uncertainty Yogi berra… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“Authors, artists, and even philosophers are much better off having a very small number of fanatics behind them than a large number… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“Since the Enlightenment, in the great tension between rationalism (how we would like things to be so they make sense to us)… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“The degeneration of philosophical schools in its turn is the consequence of the mistaken belief that one can philosophize without having been… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Wittgenstein's ruler: Unless you have confidence in the ruler's reliability, if you use a ruler to measure a table you may also be using… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
In politics we face the choice between warmongering, nation-state loving, big-business agents on one hand; and risk-blind, top-down, epistemic arrogant big servants of large… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
My nightmare scenario is that the government saves Citibank once again, as well as the other banks, and business resumes as usual. Then, the… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Using, as an excuse, others' failure of common sense is in itself a failure of common sense. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
You know, children philosophize more than adults - and they are critical of adults. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“Suckers think that you cure greed with money, addiction with substances, expert problems with experts, banking with bankers, economics with economists, and debt crises… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“One needs to go out and buy a lottery ticket in order to win. Does it mean that the work involved in the trip… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Individuals should think about the worst-case scenarios and plan for them. The world will be crazier than you think it will be. Put money… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“If you are looking for your misplaced wallet in your living room, in a trial and error mode, you exercise rationality by not looking… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“Most humans manage to squander their free time, as free time makes them dysfunctional, lazy, and unmotivated—the busier they get, the more active they… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
We learn the most from fools ... yet we pay them back with the worst ingratitude. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
