Some quotes from the book Bed of Procrustes, Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Modernity: we created youth without heroism, age without wisdom, and life without grandeur”

“Karl Marx, a visionary, figured out that you can control a slave much better by convincing him he is an employee.”

“My biggest problem with modernity may lie in the growing separation of the ethical and the legal”

“To bankrupt a fool, give him information.”

“The imagination of the genius vastly surpasses his intellect; the intellect of the academic vastly surpasses his imagination”

“Work destroys your soul by stealthily invading your brain during the hours not officially spent working; be selective about professions.”

“Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed.”

“They agree that chess training only improves chess skills but disagree that classroom training (almost) only improves classroom skills.”

“Education makes the wise slightly wiser, but it makes the fool vastly more dangerous.”

“Contra the prevailing belief, “success” isn’t being on top of a hierarchy, it is standing outside all hierarchies.”

“Regular minds find similarities in stories (and situations); finer minds detect differences.”

“In science you need to understand the world; in business you need others to misunderstand it.”

“You are rich if money you refuse tastes better than money you accept.”

“The traits I respect are erudition and the courage to stand up when half-men are afraid for their reputation. Any idiot can be intelligent.”

“The difference between slaves in Roman and Ottoman days and today’s employees is that slaves did not need to flatter their boss.”

“A mathematician starts with a problem and creates a solution; a consultant starts by offering a “solution” and creates a problem.”

“If the professor is not capable of giving a class without preparation, don’t attend. People should only teach what they have learned organically, through experience and curiosity…or get another job.”

“I suspect that they put Socrates to death because there is something terribly unattractive, alienating, and nonhuman in thinking with too much clarity.”

“The left holds that because markets are stupid models should be smart; the right believes that because models are stupid markets should be smart. Alas, it never hit both sides that both markets and models are very stupid.”

“You don’t become completely free just by avoiding to be a slave; you also need to avoid becoming a master.”

“The weak shows his strength and hides his weaknesses; the magnificent exhibits his weaknesses like ornaments.”

“A good book gets better on the second reading. A great book on the third. Any book not worth rereading isn’t worth reading.”

“To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week’s newspapers.”

“People feel deep anxiety finding out that someone they thought was stupid is actually more intelligent than they are.”