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Financial markets are the machines in which much of human welfare is decided; yet we know more about how our car engines work than about how our global financial system functions. We lurch from crisis to crisis. In a networked world, mayhem in one market spreads instantaneously to all others—and we have only the vaguest of notions how this happens, or how to regulate it.

— Benoît Mandelbrot

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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)

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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.