Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Nobody reads the disclosures that roll down your computer screen. You click 'I agree' but you don't know what you're agreeing to.”

“Failure saves lives. In the airline industry, every time a plane crashes the probability of the next crash is lowered by that. The Titanic saved lives because we're building bigger and bigge...”

“Alan Greenspan is unskilled; you don't take the unskilled seriously.”

“We are victims of the post-Enlightenment view that the world functions like a sophisticated machine, to be understood like a textbook engineering problem and run by wonks. In other words, li...”

“A country's assets reside in the tinkerers, the hobbyists, and the risk-takers.”

“Democracies can't handle austerity measures very well.”

“Bailing out every bank that fails makes the system riskier, not safer.”

“We should ban banks from risk-taking because society is going to pay the price.”

“When I trade, I don't have an agency problem; I have my neck on the line. When a bank or banker trades, it's not his neck on the line.”

“If you are in banking and lending, surprise outcomes are likely to be negative for you.”

“Banking is a very treacherous business because you don't realize it is risky until it is too late. It is like calm waters that deliver huge storms.”

“Never take advice from anyone in a tie. They'll bankrupt you. Don't ask a general for advice on war, and don't ask a broker for advice on money.”

“People have the problem of denial. This is one of the things I learned in Lebanon. Everybody who left Beirut when the war started, including my parents, said, 'Oh, its temporary.' It lasted...”

“Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg didn't finish college. Too much emphasis is placed on formal education - I told my children not to worry about their grades but to enjoy learning.”

“The next time you experience a blackout, take some solace by looking at the sky. You will not recognize it.”

“I've been telling anyone willing to listen that banks have a tendency to sit on time bombs while convincing themselves that they are conservative and nonvolatile.”

“I don't know anyone on Wall Street who goes to work every day thinking of anything but how to increase their bonus.”

“Debt is a mistake between lender and borrower, and both should suffer.”

“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.”

“What we do today has nothing to do with capitalism or socialism. It is a crony type of system that transfers money to the coffers of bureaucrats.”