What fools call "wasting time" is most often the best investment. Nassim Nicholas Taleb More Quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb More Quotes From Nassim Nicholas Taleb If humans fight the last war, nature fights the next one. Nassim Nicholas Taleb lasts fighting war I am happy everywhere except in places where I see glitz and rich farts. I am happiest in Brooklyn, where the concentration of rich farts is minimal. Nassim Nicholas Taleb fart brooklyn rich Never ask a trader if he is profitable: you can easily see it in his gesture and gait. Nassim Nicholas Taleb gestures finance business Probability is not about the odds, but about the belief in the existence of an alternative outcome, cause, or motive. Nassim Nicholas Taleb alternatives outcomes odds An elephant is vastly more efficient, metabolically, than a mouse. It's the same for a megacity as opposed to a village. But an elephant can break a leg very easily, whereas you can toss a mouse out of a window and it'll be fine. Size makes you fragile. Nassim Nicholas Taleb break-a-leg elephants growth Alan Greenspan is unskilled; you don't take the unskilled seriously. Nassim Nicholas Taleb Don't disturb complicated systems that have been around for a very long time. We don't understand their logic. Don't pollute the planet. Leave it the way we found it, regardless of scientific 'evidence'. Nassim Nicholas Taleb logic long way I always remind myself that what one observes is at best a combination of variance and returns, not just returns. Nassim Nicholas Taleb variance combination return The difference between slaves in Roman and Ottoman days and today's employees is that slaves did not need to flatter their boss. Nassim Nicholas Taleb boss differences needs The number of managers with great track records in a given market depends far more on the number of people who started in the investment business (in place of going to dental school), rather than on their ability to produce profits. Nassim Nicholas Taleb track numbers school Rationalism crashes in the tails. Nassim Nicholas Taleb rationalism crash tails Economics make homeopath and alternative healers look empirical and scientific. Nassim Nicholas Taleb economics alternatives looks In science you need to understand the world; in business you need others to misunderstand it. Nassim Nicholas Taleb world needs Success is about honour, feeling morally calibrated, absence of shame, not what some newspaper defines from an external metric. Nassim Nicholas Taleb metrics shame feelings You need a story to displace a story. Nassim Nicholas Taleb stories needs It is remarkable how fast and how effectively you can construct a nationality with a flag , a few speeches, and a national anthem; to this day I avoid the label "Lebanese," preferring the less restrictive "Levantine" designation. Nassim Nicholas Taleb flags labels speech I remind myself of Einstein's remark that common sense is nothing but a collection of misconceptions acquired by age 18. Nassim Nicholas Taleb common-sense collections age Private equity has absolutely no reason to exist. The private equity holder has all the upside and the banks all the downside. Nassim Nicholas Taleb finance business reason I want them poor and they deserve to be poor. You can't have capitalism without punishment. Nassim Nicholas Taleb punishment business want The only valid political system is one that can handle an imbecile in power without suffering from it Nassim Nicholas Taleb imbeciles political suffering