Hard work will get you a professorship or a BMW. You need both work and luck for a Booker, a Nobel or a private jet.

What we do today has nothing to do with capitalism or socialism. It is a crony type of system that transfers money to the coffers of bureaucrats.

We have this culture of financialization. People think they need to make money with their savings rather with their own business. So you end up with dentists who are more traders than dentists. A dentist should drill teeth and use whatever he does in the stock market for entertainment.

This is the tragedy of modernity: as with neurotically overprotective parents, those trying to help are often hurting us the most.

History doesn't crawl; it leaps.

Bankers, they're not harmed by their mistakes. They benefit when things go right, and the society pays the price.

If you have more than one reason to do something (choose a doctor or veterinarian, hire a gardener or an employee, marry a person, go on a trip), just don’t do it. It does not mean that one reason is better than two, just that by invoking more than one reason you are trying to convince yourself to do something. Obvious decisions (robust to error) require no more than a single reason.