Nassim Nicholas Taleb Quotes

This is the central illusion in life: that randomness is a risk, that it is a bad thing ...

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

• Life
• Bad
• Risk

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Quotes to Explore

• Could you imagine being from Siberia? Like, a small part of Russia, where it's like, 'When was the last time Russia was having a super big international pop star in the U.S.?' I don't know, but I can name a few from Sweden. I think that gives us a lot of confidence in being pop stars because we're like, 'Oh, we actually can. We know we can.'

  

  Zara Larsson
  • Time
  • Small
  • Star

• In our culture, the shame about accidental pregnancy is inextricable from the shame about having had sex. That disapproval of sex is one reason our record with contraception is so poor. If you're not supposed to be sexual, you don't plan for sex. You cross your fingers and hope for the best.

  

  Katha Pollitt
  • Hope
  • Culture
  • Best

• Orchestra had a little brass ensemble on two tracks as well, but the rest was me. I knew I couldn't continue in this direction, even if people liked it, because I can only duplicate myself.

  

  Eberhard Weber
  • People
  • Rest
  • Knew

• Time has lost all meaning in that nightmare alley of the Western world known as the American mind.

  

  Florence King
  • Time
  • World
  • Mind

• The family is very important. They make me feel good always because if I won, when I started to be famous, the relationship never changed with my friends and family.

  

  Rafael Nadal
  • Good
  • Important
  • Family

• I have often heard that the novel is dead. But I see novels produced, I don't know how many a week, in France. I have the impression it's carrying along quite well.

  

  Nathalie Sarraute
  • Know
  • Week
  • France

• I think I've always been somebody to break rules.

  

  Manish Dayal
  • Think
  • Always
  • Rules

• You learn so much on set; I don't know if you learn as much anywhere else as you do when you're on set, working.

  

  Maika Monroe
  • You
  • Know
  • Learn

• I don't want to subject myself just to one scheme. I think it's just if you can play, you can play no matter what scheme you play in.

  

  Malik Jackson
  • Think
  • Want
  • Myself

• I don't really shop any more. I only do it when I have to. I think it is very overrated.

  

  Vincent Cassel
  • Think
  • More
  • Really

• You have no ability, if you're a financial institution and you're threatened with criminal prosecution, you have no ability to negotiate.

  

  Warren Buffett
  • You
  • Financial
  • Ability

• I don't have time to listen to anybody's music. I'm making it, you know.

  

  Yoko Ono
  • Time
  • Music
  • Know

• I love figure skating and what I am able to express creatively. I want to leave a legacy in the sport.

  

  Patrick Chan
  • Legacy
  • Sport
  • Creatively

• Agatha Christie holds special personal memories for me because my mum, a television producer called Pat Sandys, had been the first person to persaude the Agatha Christie estate to put one of her stories on T.V.

  

  Samantha Bond
  • Person
  • Memories
  • Stories

• Many young men in the 1960s and 1970s came to reject some of the traditional ideas about manhood that many of their fathers tried to pass down - like unquestioning respect for authority even when that might mean killing and dying for questionable or unjust causes such as the Vietnam War.

  

  Jackson Katz
  • Men
  • War
  • Respect

• Back when I was growing up, it was like, 'You're too young to know what you want. We're telling you what you want. It doesn't matter if you like it. And you are stupid. Just so you know.'

  

  Wendi McLendon-Covey
  • Up
  • Want
  • Growing

• I always draw from things around me that people around me have gone through... The story that could be taken really literally is not from my life exactly. But bits and pieces are, and the sentiment behind it is.

  

  Kacey Musgraves
  • People
  • Life
  • Taken

• Fitness has always been one of the top priorities in my life because that's the way I grew up, with soccer being the sport of choice.

  

  Ziggy Marley
  • Life
  • Up
  • My Life

• When you grew up in France in the 1970s and 80s, the Vel' d'Hiv wasn't part of the history program.

  

  Tatiana de Rosnay
  • Up
  • History
  • You

• I used to smoke cigarettes, ten a day, but gave up when I was 28. Now my vice is several cups of coffee a day, which isn't great if you're prone to weak bones as I am, as caffeine can leach calcium.

  

  Britt Ekland
  • Up
  • Great
  • Coffee

• Am I a ranting maniac on Twitter? Yeah, but I'm also a pretty mellow, married guy who's into hiking and walking his dog.

  

  Mike Cernovich
  • Guy
  • Dog
  • Hiking

• Part of the reason why so many actors lose the plot when they go over to America is that they become part of an industry, so that's why they don't want to play weak, bad or vulnerable guys - because that's not sellable; that diminishes their profit margin.

  

  Peter Mullan
  • Why
  • America
  • Bad

• I had a friend who introduced me to a meditation practice which involves a couple of half-hours a day of meditation, where essentially you try to achieve a stillness that allows you to just be there in the moment.

  

  Kenneth Branagh
  • Friend
  • Couple
  • Practice

• This is the central illusion in life: that randomness is a risk, that it is a bad thing ...

  

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  • Life
  • Bad
  • Risk