When we want to do something while unconsciously certain to fail, we seek advice so we can blame someone else for the failure.

Never take advice from someone wearing a tie.

The rationalist imagines an imbecile-free society; the empiricist and imbecile-proof one, or even better, a rationalist-proof one.

You find peace by coming to terms with what you don't know.

If I ask you to write down the last 4 digits of your social security number, and then take you out to lunch and ask you how many dentists there are in Manhattan, there's going to be a high correlation between those two numbers. What happens is that the number psychologically makes you feel confident.

Restaurants get you in with food to sell you liquor; religions get you in with belief to sell you rules.

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.