Quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

About Nassim Nicholas Taleb:

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, and risk analyst, whose work focuses on problems of randomness, probability, and uncertainty. His 2007 book The Black Swan was described in a review by the Sunday Times as one of the twelve most influential books since World War II.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

What America does best is produce the ability to accept failure.

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 should our future resemble our current past?

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Reality is far more vicious than Russian roulette. First, it delivers the fatal bullet rather infrequently, like a revolver that would have hundreds, even thousands of chambers instead of six. After a few dozen tries, one forgets about the existence ...

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Years ago, I noticed one thing about economics, and that is that economists didn't get anything right.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The key to wealth is that it doesn't matter. Once you've had it, you don't think anything of it; you can wear cheap watches.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I hated school because I liked to daydream and the system tried to stop me from that.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Fragility is the quality of things that are vulnerable to volatility.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

In social policy, when we provide a safety net, it should be designed to help people take more entrepreneurial risks, not to turn them into dependents. This doesn't mean that we should be callous to the underprivileged.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

When you ask people, 'What's the opposite of fragile?,' they tend to say robust, resilient, adaptable, solid, strong. That's not it. The opposite of fragile is something that gains from disorder.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Never think that lack of variability is stability. Don't confuse lack of volatility with stability, ever.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Most people are sceptical about the wrong things and gullible about the wrong things.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

You have family-owned businesses that have been around for 500 years. You cannot name a corporation that survives intact for even a few decades.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Debt is a mistake between lender and borrower, and both should suffer.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I am happy everywhere except in places where I see glitz and rich farts. I am happiest in Brooklyn, where the concentration of rich farts is minimal.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The grandchildren should not bear the debts of the grandparents.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

If you are in banking and lending, surprise outcomes are likely to be negative for you.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The world we live in is vastly different from the world we think we live in.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

There are two types of people: those who try to win and those who try to win arguments. They are never the same.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

You will get the most attention from those who hate you. No friend, no admirer and no partner will flatter you with as much curiosity.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

A country's assets reside in the tinkerers, the hobbyists, and the risk-takers.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Author Bio

  • NameNassim Nicholas Taleb
  • DescriptionAuthor, philosopher, statistician, trader
  • BornJanuary 1, 1960
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionPhilosopher; Essayist; Mathematician; Writer