To succeed in life requires a total inability to do anything that makes you uncomfortable when you look at yourself in the mirror.

If you're going to fail, you'd rather fail early than fail late in general.

Modernity: we created youth without heroism, age without wisdom, and life without grandeur

Maximum of an average is necessarily less volatile than the average maximum

Missing a train is only painful if you run after it! Likewise, not matching the idea of success others expect from you is only painful if that’s what you are seeking.

The government-sponsored institution Fannie Mae, when I look at its risks, seems to be sitting on a barrel of dynamite, vulnerable to the slightest hiccup. But not to worry: their large staff of scientists deemed these events "unlikely."

At no point in history have so many non-risk-takers, that is, those with no personal exposure, exerted so much control.