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
It does not matter how frequently something succeeds if failure is too costly to bear.
Interpretation
The cost of failure is more important than the number of successes one achieves.
This quote emphasizes the importance of considering the potential repercussions of failure, suggesting that even a high success rate can be irrelevant if the failure has serious, detrimental consequences. It encourages individuals and organizations to weigh the risks involved in their pursuits, advocating for a thoughtful approach to decision-making and an awareness of what is at stake.
In practice
During a business presentation to highlight the importance of risk management.
Nobody reads the disclosures that roll down your computer screen. You click 'I agree' but you don't know what you're agreeing to.
Fragility is the quality of things that are vulnerable to volatility.
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.
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.
A good maxim allows you to have the last word without even starting a conversation.
A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.
Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.
If we are to have magical bodies, we must have magical minds.
Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape.
Talking much is a sign of vanity, for the one who is lavish with words is cheap in deeds.
Your masters at Oxford have taught you to idolize reason, drying up the prophetic capacities of your heart!
In the final analysis there is no other solution to man's progress but the day's honest work, the day's honest decision, the day's generous utterances, and the day's good deed.
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