Time Quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“it is easy to see that history is truly written by losers with time on their hands and a protected academic position.”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“In the past, only some of the males, but all of the females, were able to procreate. Equality is more natural for…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The next time you experience a blackout, take some solace by looking at the sky. You will not recognize it.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“In the long run everything with the most minute vulnerability breaks, given the ruthlessness of time.”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

It was obvious that their profits were simply cash borrowed from destiny with some random payback time.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

What fools call "wasting time" is most often the best investment.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Anything organic requires some dose of variability so it can adapt all the time, and fixing things is not a good idea.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“When you look at the past, the past will always be deterministic, since only one single observation took place.”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

If something is going on, I hear about it. I like to talk to people, I socialise. Television is a waste of…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I've been telling anyone willing to listen that banks have a tendency to sit on time bombs while convincing themselves that they…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“It takes a huge investment in introspection to learn that the thirty or more hours spent “studying” the news last month neither…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“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

“good news is good news first; how good matters rather little. So to have a pleasant life you should spread these small…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“The next time someone pesters you with unneeded advice, gently remind him of the fate of the monk whom Ivan the Terrible…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“If the past, by bringing surprises, did not resemble the past previous to it (what I call the past's past), then why…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Prediction requires knowing about technologies that will be discovered in the future, but that very knowledge would almost automatically allow us to…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“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

“Of course chance favors the prepared! Hard work, showing up on time, wearing a clean (preferably white) shirt, using deodorant, and some…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Aside from the decorum of ancient thought as opposed to the coarseness of fresh ink, I have spent some time phrasing the…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“The observation of the numerous misfortunes that attend all conditions forbids us to grow insolent upon our present enjoyments, or to admire…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Failure saves lives. In the airline industry, every time a plane crashes the probability of the next crash is lowered by that.…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“As a child of civil war, I disbelieve in structured learning—actually I believe that one can be an intellectual without being a…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Imagine a speck of dust next to a planet a billion times the size of the earth. The speck of dust represents…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“I propose that if you want a simple step to a higher form of life, as distant from the animal as you…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Such trait of absence of marriage to ideas is indeed rare among humans. Just as we do with children, we support those…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Our human race is affected by a chronic underestimation of the possibility of the future straying from the course initially envisioned (in…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“those who are very good at predicting the past will think of themselves as good at predicting the future,”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Probability and expectation are not the same. Its probability and probability times the pay off.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“There is something nonphilosophical about investing one’s pride and ego into a “my house/ library/ car is bigger than that of others…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Most info-Web-media-newspaper types have a hard time swallowing the idea that knowledge is reached (mostly) by removing junk from peoples heads”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“In 1960 Taiwan had a much lower literacy rate than the Philippines and half the income per person; today Taiwan has ten…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Globalization has created this interlocking fragility. At no time in the history of the universe has the cancellation of a Christmas order…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Things that have worked for a long time are preferable - they are more likely to have reached their ergodic states. At…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The same past data can confirm a theory and its exact opposite! If you survive until tomorrow, it could mean that either…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“be. So I follow the Lindy effect as a guide in selecting what to read: books that have been around for ten…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

But they never notice the following inconsistency: this so-called worst-case event, when it happened, exceeded the worst case at the time.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Note that scholars are judged mostly on how many times their work is referenced in other people's work and thus cliques are…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Scientists may be in the business of laughing at their predecessors, but owing to an array of human mental dispositions, few realize…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb