A biography for Nassim Nicholas Talebhasn’t been written yet.
“The curious mind embraces science; the gifted and sensitive, the arts; the practical, business; the leftover becomes an economist”
“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.”
“Just as no monkey is as good-looking as the ugliest of humans, no academic is worthier than the worst of the creators”
“Missing a train is only painful if you run after it! Likewise, not matching the idea of success others expect from you is only painful if that’s what you are seeking.”
“In the United States, large corporations control some members of Congress. All this does is delay the corporation's funeral at our expense.”
“Bailing out every bank that fails makes the system riskier, not safer.”
“There are two types of people: those who try to win and those who try to win arguments. They are never the same.”
“What we do today has nothing to do with capitalism or socialism. It is a crony type of system that transfers money to the coffers of bureaucrats.”
“The next time someone pesters you with unneeded advice, gently remind him of the fate of the monk whom Ivan the Terrible put to death for delivering uninvited (and moralizing) advice. It works as a short-term cure.”
“If you are in banking and lending, surprise outcomes are likely to be negative for you.”
“A theory is like medicine (or government): often useless, sometimes necessary, always self-serving, and on occasion lethal. So it needs to be used with care, moderation and close adult supervision.”
“I lift heavy weights and sprint, but I am so bad at it that I develop severe injuries.”
“Democracies can't handle austerity measures very well.”
“Governments that try to shoot for a surplus hardly ever reach it.”
“It might be useful to be able to predict war. But tension does not necessarily lead to war, but often to peace and to denouement.”
“We know from chaos theory that even if you had a perfect model of the world, you'd need infinite precision in order to predict future events. With sociopolitical or economic phenomena, we don't have anything like that.”
“The next time you experience a blackout, take some solace by looking at the sky. You will not recognize it.”
“I no longer care about the financial system. I gave them my roadmap. OK? Thanks, bye. I've no idea what's going on. I'm disconnected. I'm totally disengaged.”
“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.”
“If you are an Arabic-speaking, Greek-Orthodox going to a French school it makes you deeply sceptical if you have to listen to three different accounts of the Crusades - one from the Muslim side, one from the Greek side and one from the Catholic side.”