"Wisdom in the young is as unattractive as frivolity in the elderly."
- Nassim Taleb
"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."
- Nassim Taleb
"A flower is a weed with an advertising budget."
- Rory Sutherland
"The human mind does not run on logic any more than a horse runs on petrol."
- Rory Sutherland
"It is much easier to be fired for being illogical than it is for being unimaginative. The fatal issue is that logic always gets you to exactly the same place as your competitors."
- Rory Sutherland
"Irrational people are much more powerful than rational people, because their threats are so much more convincing."
- Rory Sutherland
"Not everything that makes sense works, and not everything that works makes sense."
- Rory Sutherland
"Henry Ford’s reaction to a consultant who questioned why he paid $50,000 a year to someone who spent most of his time with his feet on his desk. “Because a few years ago that man came up with something that saved me $2,000,000,” he replied. “And when he had that idea his feet were exactly where they are now."
- Rory Sutherland
"The most dangerous people were the stupid and energetic people because they’ll always do things and because they’re stupid they’ll do stupid things."
- Rory Sutherland
"When you demand logic, you pay a hidden price: you destroy magic."
- Rory Sutherland
"The number of people who think they understand statistics dangerously dwarfs those who actually do, and maths can cause fundamental problems when badly used."