782 Quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Being self-owned is a state of mind.

You view the world from within a model.

Freedom is always associated with risk taking, whether it leads to it or comes from it.

If you do not take risks for your opinion, you're nothing.

English does not distinguish between arrogant-up (irreverence toward the temporarily powerful) and arrogant-down (directed at the small guy).

Hormesis is a metaphor: antifragility is a phenomenon.

A theory is like medicine (or government): often useless, sometimes necessary, always self-serving, and on occasion lethal. So it needs to be used with care, moderation and close adult supervision.

The problem is that our ideas are sticky: once we produce a theory, we are not likely to change our minds....

I will repeat the following until I am hoarse: it is contagion that determines the fate of a theory in social science, not its validity.