Nassim Nicholas Taleb Quotes That Will Inspire You to Live Your Best Life

1. A prophet is not someone with special visions, just someone blind to most of what others see The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

2. If you want to annoy a poet, explain his poetry. The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

3. Love without sacrifice is like theft The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

4. 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. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

5. Reality is far more vicious than Russian roulette. First, it delivers the fatal bullet rather infrequently, like a revolver that would have hundreds, even thousands of chambers instead of six. After a few dozen tries, one forgets about the existence of a bullet, under a numbing false sense of security. Second, unlike a well-defined precise game like Russian roulette, where the risks are visible to anyone capable of multiplying and dividing by six, one does not observe the barrel of reality. One is capable of unwittingly playing Russian roulette - and calling it by some alternative low risk game. Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

6. Success is leading an honorable life. Honor implies that there are some actions you would categorically never do, regardless of the material rewards. It also means that there are things you would do unconditionally, regardless of the consequences. Skin in the Game: The Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

7. The problem of knowledge is that there are many more books on birds written by ornithologists than books on birds written by birds and books on ornithologists written by birds The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

8. They think that intelligence is about noticing things are relevant (detecting patterns); in a complex world, intelligence consists in ignoring things that are irrelevant (avoiding false patterns)

9. They will envy you for your success, your wealth, for your intelligence, for your looks, for your status - but rarely for your wisdom. The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

10. True success is exiting some rat race to modulate one’s activities for peace of mind

11. Wit seduces by signaling intelligence without nerdiness. The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

12. If you want to annoy a poet, explain his poetry. The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

13. Love without sacrifice is like theft The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

14. The curious mind embraces science; the gifted and sensitive, the arts; the practical, business; the leftover becomes an economist The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

15. The problem of knowledge is that there are many more books on birds written by ornithologists than books on birds written by birds and books on ornithologists written by birds The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

16. Things always become obvious after the fact