WIST Quotations

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas -- The Black Swan, Part 2, ch. 12 “Epistemocracy, a Dream” (2007)

Dave — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:45:09 +0000

Alas, one cannot assert authority by accepting one’s own fallibility. Simply, people need to be blinded by knowledge — we are made to follow leaders who can gather people together because the advantages of being in groups trump the disadvantages of being alone. It has been more profitable for us to bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one. Those who have followed the assertive idiot rather than the introspective wise person have passed us some of their genes. This is apparent from a social pathology: psychopaths rally followers.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
The Black Swan, Part 2, ch. 12 “Epistemocracy, a Dream” (2007)

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth -- Hyperion, “The Story of Brother Bernardus” (1839)

Dave — Fri, 11 Mar 2022 16:35:57 +0000

In this world a man must either be an anvil or a hammer.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet
Hyperion, “The Story of Brother Bernardus” (1839)

Foglio, Phil -- Agatha H and the Voice of the Castle (2014) [with Kaja Foglio]

Dave — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 17:22:08 +0000

Like almost everything else, sex education in Mechanicsburg has its own … unique take. As a result, Mechanicsburg girls tend to be rather forward, know what they want, and have no qualms about asking for it, especially when they are wearing their weasel pajamas.

Phil Foglio (b. 1956) American writer, cartoonist
Agatha H and the Voice of the Castle (2014) [with Kaja Foglio]

Parker, Dorothy -- “Indian Summer,” Enough Rope (1926)

Dave — Mon, 04 May 2020 15:11:15 +0000

In youth, it was a way I had
To do my best to please,
And change, with every passing lad,
To suit his theories.

But now I know the things I know,
And do the things I do;
And if you do not like me so,
To hell, my love, with you!

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American writer, poet, wit
“Indian Summer,” Enough Rope (1926)