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Intelligence consists in ignoring things that are irrelevant.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

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More quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Ethical man accords his profession to his beliefs, instead of according his beliefs to his profession.

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

An idea starts to be interesting when you get scared of taking it to its logical conclusion.

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

You have a real life if and only if you do not compete with anyone in any of your pursuits.

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

The weak shows his strength and hides his weaknesses; the magnificent exhibits his weaknesses like ornaments.

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week’s newspapers.

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010)

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Each of these private teachers who work for pay ... inculcates nothing else than these opinions of the multitude which they opine when they are assembled and calls this knowledge wisdom.

Socrates

Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities.

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël De l’Allemagne [Germany (1813)

Like every 'intellectual', a philosophy teacher is a petty bourgeois. When he opens his mouth, it is petty-bourgeois ideology that speaks: its resources and ruses are infinite.

Louis Althusser Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (1968)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Nassim Nicholas Taleb (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.