179 quotes
An option hides where we don't want it to hide.
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012)
It’s harder to say no when you really mean it.
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)
Modernity has replaced ethics with legalese.
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012)
It does not matter how frequently something succeeds if failure is too costly to bear.
Fooled by Randomness (2001)
Know how to rank beliefs not according to their plausibility but by the harm they may cause.
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (2007)
Don't talk about "progress" in terms of longevity, safety, or comfort before comparing zoo animals to those in the wilderness.
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)
The casino is the only human venture I know where the probabilities are known, Gaussian (i.e., bell-curve), and almost computable.
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (2007)
Mathematics is principally a tool to meditate, rather than to compute.
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (2001)
The test of the originality for an idea is not the absence of one single predecessor but the presence of multiple but incompatible ones.
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)
Saying “the mathematics of uncertainty” is like saying “the chastity of sex”—what is mathematized is no longer uncertain, and vice versa.
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)
I want to live happily in a world I don't understand.
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012)
People used to wear ordinary clothes weekdays, and formal attire on Sunday. Today it is the exact reverse.
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)
It is all about redundancy. Nature likes to overinsure itself.
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012)
A trader's mental construction should direct him to do precisely what other people do not do.
Fooled by Randomness (2001)
This is the central illusion in life: that randomness is a risk, that it is a bad thing ...
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012)
In case you are giving economic views: Don't tell me what you "think," just tell me what's in your portfolio.
Skin in the Game (2018)
Our greatest asset is the one we distrust the most: the built-in antifragility of certain risk-taking systems.
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012)
If I could predict what my day would exactly look like, I would feel a little bit dead.
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012)
When we want to do something while unconsciously certain to fail, we seek advice so we can blame someone else for the failure.
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)
We didn't get where we are thanks to the sissy notion of resilience.
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012)