"The difference between slaves in Roman and Ottoman days and today’s employees is that slaves did not need to flatter their boss."
- Nassim Taleb
"Missing a train is only painful if you run after it."
- Nassim Taleb
"Too much success is the enemy, too much failure is demoralizing."
- Nassim Taleb
"History is opaque. You see what comes out, not the script that produces events, the generator of history."
- Nassim Taleb
"So just as Stoicism is the domestication, not the elimination, of emotions, so is the barbell a domestication, not the elimination, of uncertainty."
- Nassim Taleb
"Maximum of an average is necessarily less volatile than the average maximum."
- Nassim Taleb
"A mathematician starts with a problem and creates a solution; a consultant starts by offering a “solution” and creates a problem."
- Nassim Taleb
"This is the central illusion in life: that randomness is risky, that it is a bad thing—and that eliminating randomness is done by eliminating randomness."
- Nassim Taleb
"Silver Rule (negative golden rule): Do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you. Note the difference from the Golden Rule, as the silver one prevents busybodies from attempting to run your life."
- Nassim Taleb
"You don't become completely free just by avoiding to be a slave; you also need to avoid becoming a master."