The central idea in The Black Swan is that: rare events cannot be estimated from empirical observation since they are rare.

To become a philosopher, start by walking very slowly.

The curious mind embraces science; the gifted and sensitive, the arts; the practical, business; the leftover becomes an economist

Also, it's good to have more than one profession, in case your own profession goes out of style. A Wall Street trader who's also a belly dancer will do a lot better than a trader who winds up driving a taxi.

The more data we have, the more likely we are to drown in it.

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

Wittgenstein's ruler: Unless you have confidence in the ruler's reliability, if you use a ruler to measure a table you may also be using the table to measure the ruler.