Categorizing is necessary for humans, but it becomes pathological when the category is seen as definitive, preventing people from considering the fuzziness of boundaries, let alone revising their categories.
While in theory randomness is an intrinsic property, in practice, randomness is incomplete information.
What fools call “wasting time” is most often the best investment.
The characteristic feature of the loser is to bemoan, in general terms, mankind’s flaws, biases, contradictions, and irrationality – without exploiting them for fun and profit.
Never ask a trader if he is profitable: you can easily see it in his gesture and gait.
Private equity has absolutely no reason to exist. The private equity holder has all the upside and the banks all the downside.
I want them poor and they deserve to be poor. You can’t have capitalism without punishment.
I remind myself of Einstein’s remark that common sense is nothing but a collection of misconceptions acquired by age 18...
Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market alow you to put there.
I always remind myself that what one observes is at best a combination of variance and returns, not just returns.
But it remains the case that you know what is wrong with a lot more confidence than you know what is right.
Rank beliefs not according to their plausibility but by the harm they may cause.
Much of modern life is preventable chronic stress injury.
Social science means inventing a certain brand of human we can understand.
The weak shows his strength and hides his weaknesses; the magnificent exhibits his weaknesses like ornaments.
Greatness starts with the replacement of hatred with polite disdain.
Decomposition, for most, starts when they leave the free, social, and uncorrupted college life for the solitary confinement of professions and nuclear families.
Only in recent history has “working hard” signaled pride rather than shame for lack of talent, finesse and, mostly, sprezzatura .
The difference between slaves in Roman and Ottoman days and today’s employees is that slaves did not need to flatter their boss.
The book is the only medium left that hasn’t been corrupted by the profane.