Nobody reads the disclosures that roll down your computer screen. You click 'I agree' but you don't know what you're agreeing to.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
An ad hominem attack against an individual, not against an idea, is highly flattering. It indicates that the person does not have anything intelligent to say about your message.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Ad hominem attacks reveal a lack of substantive arguments against an idea.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb's quote highlights the notion that when someone resorts to personal attacks rather than engaging with the ideas presented, it is a sign of their inability to counter the underlying message intellectually. Such behavior is not only flattering, as it suggests one's arguments are strong, but also underscores the weakness in the opponent's ability to debate the actual content of the discussion.
Themes
Ad HominemAttackArgumentIntellectMessage
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about political issues, if one candidate resorts to personal insults, it can be quoted to show their lack of substantial arguments.
More from Nassim Nicholas Taleb
All quotes βFragility is the quality of things that are vulnerable to volatility.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
Those who were unlucky in life in spite of their skills would eventually rise. The lucky fool might have benefited from some luck in life; over the longer run he would slowly converge to the state of a less-lucky idiot. Each one would revert to his long-term properties.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
Individuals should think about the worst-case scenarios and plan for them. The world will be crazier than you think it will be. Put money away, and then you can live with much more freedom.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
A good maxim allows you to have the last word without even starting a conversation.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
Similar quotes
There are men who struggle for a day and they are good. There are men who struggle for a year and they are better. There are men who struggle many years, and they are better still. But there are those who struggle all their lives: These are the indispensable ones.
Bertolt BrechtRead
I think the world would be a lot better off if more people were to define themselves in terms of their own standards and values and not what other people said or thought about them.
Hillary ClintonRead
Prayer is the place of refuge for every worry, a foundation for cheerfulness, a source of constant happiness, a protection against sadness.
Saint John ChrysostomRead
There is no slavery but ignorance.
Robert Green IngersollRead
I've found that the chief difficulty for most people was to realize that they had really heard new things: that is things that they had never heard before. They kept translating what they heard into their habitual language. They had ceased to hope and believe there might be anything new.
P.D. OuspenskyRead
No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
EpictetusRead