782 Quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I drive a hybrid, moving into an electric car. I only drink tap water, never consume food that's travelled.

Banks have never made money in the history of banking, losing the equivalent of all their past profits periodically - while bankers strike it rich.

What is nonmeasurable and nonpredictable will remain nonmeasurable and nonpredictable ... no matter how much hate mail I get.

You want to favor systems that benefit from error, disorder, variability and things like that. You want to favor these systems and unfortunately, when - there's something I call the Soviet Illusion. The more the government becomes intrusive, the more things have to follow a script, and it can't handle this kind of system.

If you take risks and face your fate with dignity, there is nothing you can do that makes you small; if you don't take risks, there is nothing you can do that makes you grand, nothing.

If you don't feel that you haven't read enough, you haven't read enough.

The traits I respect are erudition and the courage to stand up when half-men are afraid for their reputation. Any idiot can be intelligent.

Don't ask the barber whether you need a haircut, and don't ask an academic if what he does is relevant.

Globalization has created this interlocking fragility. At no time in the history of the universe has the cancellation of a Christmas order in New York meant layoffs in China.