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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 46682cd | making some types of errors is the most rational thing to do, when the errors are of little cost, as they lead to discoveries. For instance, most medical "discoveries"are accidental to something else. An error-free world would have no penicillin, no chemotherapy...almost no drugs, and most probably no humans. This is why I have been against the state dictating to us what we "should"be doing: only evolution knows if the "wrong"thing is reall.. | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | ||
| 2830586 | But never engage in detailed overexplanations of why something is important: one debases a principle by endlessly justifying it. | principle importance | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | |
| f4552b9 | You need a story to displace a story. Metaphors and stories are far more potent (alas) than ideas; they are also easier to remember and more fun to read. If I have to go after what I call the narrative disciplines, my best tool is a narrative. Ideas come and go, stories stay. | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | ||
| 6c92681 | One single observation can invalidate a general statement derived from millennia of confirmatory sightings of millions of white swans. All you need is one single (and, I am told, quite ugly) black bird.* | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | ||
| 13c6285 | what you learn from the intensity and the focus you had when under the influence of risk stays with you. You may lose the sharpness, but nobody can take away what you've learned. This is the principal reason I am now fighting the conventional educational system, made by dweebs for dweebs. Many kids would learn to love mathematics if they had some investment in it, and, more crucially, they would build an instinct to spot its misapplications.. | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | ||
| 74fb777 | Whenever you hear a snotty (and frustrated) European middlebrow presenting his stereotypes about Americans, he will often describe them as "uncultured," "unintellectual," and "poor in math" because, unlike his peers, Americans are not into equation drills and the constructions middlebrows call "high culture"--like knowledge of Goethe's inspirational (and central) trip to Italy, or familiarity with the Delft school of painting. Yet the perso.. | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | ||
| ae76b35 | Religion isn't so much about telling man that there is one God as about preventing man from thinking that he is God. | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | ||
| 5d9de00 | There are secrets to our world that only practice can reveal, and no opinion or analysis will ever capture in full. | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | ||
| 3fbd962 | This confirmation problem pervades our modern life, since most conflicts have at their root the following mental bias: when Arabs and Israelis watch news reports they see different stories in the same succession of events. Likewise, Democrats and Republicans look at different parts of the same data and never converge to the same opinions. Once your mind is inhabited with a certain view of the world, you will tend to only consider instances .. | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | ||
| d8e61e6 | It is much more immoral to claim virtue without fully living with its direct consequences. | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | ||
| 3605ae7 | Assume that you live in a town with two hospitals--one large, the other small. On a given day 60 percent of those born in one of the two hospitals are boys. Which hospital is it likely to be? | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | ||
| 62b5165 | Recall the confirmation fallacy: governments are great at telling you what they did, but not what they did not do. In fact, they engage in what could be labeled as phony "philanthropy," the activity of helping people in a visible and sensational way without taking into account the unseen cemetery of invisible consequences. Bastiat inspired libertarians by attacking the usual arguments that showed the benefits of governments. But his ideas c.. | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | ||
| 2d31d33 | We humans are not just a superficial race (this may be curable to some extent); we are a very unfair one. | Nassim Nicholas Taleb | ||
| 6ea659a | A female feline named Katta Is getting fatta and fatta But she's pretty and purry And funny and furry So what does an ounce or two matta? | feline limmeric | Lilian Jackson Braun | |
| 9aa4073 | Why do you guys want to take all the mystery away? Isn't the mystery an exciting part of sex? | John Irving | ||
| 3372d65 | You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And you edit to let the fire show through the smoke. ARTHUR PLOTNIK | Judy Reeves | ||
| 143f035 | I think I'm going to cut down on my dating,' Annie said. 'I used to need a lot of attention. You know, to make up for that empty feeling inside. But boys aren't always the answer. | sweet-valley empty dating | Francine Pascal | |
| 1db9525 | The thought of gaining weight was all she needed to lose her appetite completely. Not that Jessica - a model-slim, perfect size-six - ever had to worry about her weight. | weight-gain superficiality sweet-valley | Francine Pascal | |
| 614ebf4 | Her wonderful, sweet, perfect, fairy-tale romance had turned out to have a twist. Prince Charming was a bloodsucker. | Lynsay Sands | ||
| 43c4326 | I wanted to get you flowers but none of the flower shops are open at this hour. I checked six all-night variety stores before finding any at all and this was the best of the-" "They're lovely," Rachel interrupted as she took the flowers. Limp and sad-looking as they were, they truly were lovely to Rachel. They represented hope, and she accepted them gladly, offering a shy smile as she lifted them to her face and sniffed the delicate bouquet.. | romance humor vampires | Lynsay Sands | |
| 525b5f4 | Here, don't forget your bells." Elvi grimaced as she took the anklet laced with bells. They'd been a gift from Mabel right after her turning. She'd claimed she thought they were charming, but Elvi knew the truth was they kept her from sneaking up on the other woman and startling her. Mabel had never admitted it," | Lynsay Sands | ||
| 67dcdf4 | He was a typical workaholic, driven to succeed and willing to put in the hours to do so. It didn't leave much time for a social life. (Greg) | this-was-me work-ethic | Lynsay Sands | |
| 7a712ec | My lady?" He peered briefly around to see that all seemed in order, and confusion immediately covered his face. "Take a dozen men and ride out in search of my husband," Emma commanded at once. The steward goggled at her. "But, my lady--" "Now, Sebert. Or all will be lost." Sebert nodded and started to withdraw, then paused and turned back, his gaze moving helplessly to the two men by the fireplace, before flying back to Emma herself. "But m.. | Lynsay Sands | ||
| 9ed2fe6 | Divine had meant to try to shut her mind off from his sooner than she had, but had got wrapped up in the passion she'd so carefully stirred to life in them both and left it just that one second or two too long. Instead of remaining conscious as she'd hoped, she'd ended up passing out with him. | Lynsay Sands | ||
| f508bdf | In sleep, Ross's face was unguarded, his expression soft. It made him appear much younger. He also snored loud enough to wake the dead. It made her think it would be a good thing did she fall asleep first every night for the rest of their marriage. Annabel | Lynsay Sands | ||
| 172dcb8 | The point is, you should have stayed right where you were and let us handle this. Now we're going to have to tie up your uncle and put him in one of the cells or something until we sort out everything and can prove your innocence. | Lynsay Sands | ||
| c276969 | Losers with no imagination say that if you start a new school, there has to be a first day. How come they haven't figure out how to be that? Just think existentially. All you do is take what is supposed to be the first day and bury someplace in the next month. By the time you get around to it a month later, who cares? | Francine Pascal | ||
| ccbfb7a | Renny was smarter and funnier and more original than they'd ever be, but he was thirteen. He was at the brutal age when many kids would sell all their uniqueness in their character for the right pair of shoes. | Francine Pascal | ||
| 9aad97a | As the crow flies. That's how she liked to walk. So what if she had nowhere to go? So what if no one on earth knew or probably cared where she was or when she'd get home? That wasn't the point. It didn't mean she had to take the long way. She was starting a new school in the morning, and she meant to put as much distance between herself and tomorrow as she could. Walking fast didn't stop the earth's slow roll, but sometimes it felt like it .. | distance tomorrow alone walking | Francine Pascal | |
| be11d8f | The bed in which we spend a third of our lives functions as a kind of protective haven for the true self, the subconscious refuge from the assault of the external world. The bed becomes the restorative womb, where the imagination is nurtured while our resting bodies are safe. | Keith Donohue | ||
| 6842412 | Love is the madness which allows us to believe in magic. | Keith Donohue | ||
| e73626d | I am lying in the same bed where my mother died so long ago; on the same mattress, beneath the same black wool coverlet she wrapped us in to sleep. I slept beside her, her little girl, in the special place she made for me in her arms. I think I can still feel the calm rhythm of her breathing; the palpitations and sighs that soothed my sleep. . . . I think I feel the pain of her death. . . . But that isn't true. Here I lie, flat on my back, .. | Juan Rulfo | ||
| 0295cd5 | Nadie te hara dano nunca, hijo. Estoy aqui para protegerte. Por eso naci antes que tu y mis huesos se endurecieron primero que los tuyos. | Juan Rulfo | ||
| 0783522 | Tu crees en el infierno, Justina? -Si, Susana. Y tambien en el cielo. -Yo solo creo en el infierno -dijo. Y cerro los ojos. | juan rulfo | ||
| 2a1abd6 | Hay aire y sol, hay nubes. Alla arriba un cielo azul y detras de el tal vez haya canciones; tal vez mejores voces...Hay esperanza, en suma. Hay esperanza para nosotros, contra nuestro pesar. | Juan Rulfo | ||
| 44e7170 | So even the most unlikely events have to take place somewhere ... | David Lindsay-Abaire | ||
| 797fceb | The truth is, Sidonie, I don't fare well with women." He spoke coolly, and without looking at her. "It is my own fault, of course. I...I neglect them. I forget where I'm supposed to be, and when I'm supposed to be there. I'm irresponsible. I drink to excess, gamble to excess, and sometimes I brawl. I never remember special occasions. And I very often go to sleep before they've...well, never mind that." Devellyn fell silent for a moment. "An.. | Liz Carlyle | ||
| aaf3e0b | If there is something one wants badly, one must often be bold. | Liz Carlyle | ||
| 457a71f | And you know what? If there is a God, and it's that same God who's so eager to have temples built in honor of his greatness, and wars fought over him, and people dropping to their knees telling him what a wonderful, magnificent being he is? If this all-powerful, all-knowing creature for some reason just can't get by without my worship? Then let him give me some proof. Or at least get over himself if I decide to go out and get some. | religion | Robin Wasserman | |
| a3f9ae2 | Eli: 'If a machine like that really existed, people would be willing to kill for it. Lots of people.' Nora: 'Yeah, and if hot vampires really existed, suicide would be a viable option for wrinkle prevention. Your point? | Robin Wasserman | ||
| 2549858 | pregnant. dead. Jewish. These are impossibles. | Robin Wasserman | ||
| ae01c9a | I told myself I deserved some good luck, overlooking the fact that it would call for substantially more than luck to thrust me into one of those narratives where plain-Jane new girl catches the eye of inexplicably single Prince Charming, because somehow the new school has revealed her wild, irresistible beauty, of which she was never before aware. | love | Robin Wasserman | |
| 0048b43 | Life is both a particle and a wave, Lacey taught me, and also it's neither. But only when no one is watching. Once you measure it, it has to choose. It was the act of witnessing that turned nothing into something, collapsed possibility clouds into concrete and irrevocable truth. I'd only pretended to understand before, but I understood now: When no one was watching, I was a cloud. I was all possibilities. | life definition particle wave | Robin Wasserman | |
| 1516a0d | Eli shouted my name, and then his arounds were around me, and I reached for Adriane who held fast to a blistering, burning creature that once had been Max and somehow still breathed and stood and howled. Though he was now nothing but flame, a golem of fire, that lived only because he'd forgotten how to die. | Robin Wasserman |