Nassim Nicholas Taleb Quotes

We like to think we can solve everything, but we can't always.

The older I get, the surer I am that I'm not running the show.

There are things in life we don't understand, and when we meet them, all we can do is let them alone.

If we can't accept what we don't know, there really is no hope.

Every 10 years, I know less about love and relationships. The smarter I get, the less I know.

It is unwise to wish everything explained.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

Whoever believes he knows why everything is as it is has hold of nothing.

The key is really just saying my brain isn't big enough to figure out why everything happens. It would be like an ant trying to understand the internet.

I learned 30 years ago that it is foolish to scold. I have enough trouble overcoming my own limitations without fretting over the fact that God has not seen fit to distribute evenly the gift of intelligence.

Wisdom is not the understanding of mystery. Wisdom is accepting that mystery is beyond understanding. That's what makes it mystery.

We don't have an explanation for everything that happens. We don't control almost anything. And if we are not open to that mystery, life becomes so small.

There's nothing shameful in acknowledging that you don't have the answers to every question about life. Just accept the fact that you know only a fraction of what's going on in the world. You don't have to attach explanations in terms of a special revelation of God's will, a glimpse at the supernatural, evidence of a conspiracy, or anything else.

As you get older you realize your parents don't look so dumb - and that you're not as smart as you thought you were.

Do not measure God's mind by your own.

John Wanamaker, founder of the stores that bear his name, once confessed: "I learned thirty years ago that it is foolish to scold. I have enough trouble overcoming my own limitations without fretting over the fact that God has not seen fit to distribute evenly the gift of intelligence.

There are lots of things we never understand, no matter how many years we put on, no matter how much experience we accumulate.

What I learned is that it's arrogant to be certain of anything. The world is a complex place and only idiots or assholes think they know it all.

To have peace with this peculiar life; to accept what we do not understand; to wait calmly for what awaits us, you have to be wiser than I am.

To take what you know for what you know, and what you do not know for what you do not know, that is knowledge indeed.

Sometimes we just have to accept there are things we can’t know. Why is your sister ill? Why did my father die?…Sometimes we think we should be able to know everything. But we can’t. we have to allow ourselves to see what there is to see, and we have to imagine.

The measure of your enlightenment is the degree to which you are comfortable with paradox, contradiction, and ambiguity.

Be smart, but never show it.

The more you know, the more you know you don't know and the more you know that you don't know.

You'll never know everything about anything, especially something you love.