Skip to content

People want to see patterns in the world. It is how we evolved. We descended from those primates who were best at spotting the telltale pattern of a predator in the forest, or of food in the savannah. So important is this skill that we apply it everywhere, warranted or not.

— Benoît Mandelbrot The (Mis)Behavior of Markets (2004)

Another quote →

More quotes by Benoît Mandelbrot

If you have a hammer, use it everywhere you can, but I do not claim that everything is fractal.

Unfortunately, the world has not been designed for the convenience of mathematicians.

The (Mis)Behavior of Markets (2004)

Fractal geometry is not just a chapter of mathematics, but one that helps Everyman to see the same world differently.

The Fractal Geometry of Nature (1982)

Engineering is too important to wait for science.

Contrary to popular opinion, mathematics is about simplifying life, not complicating it.

The (Mis)Behavior of Markets (2004)

All Benoît Mandelbrot quotes →

Attribution

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