WIST Quotations

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas -- The Black Swan, Part 2, ch. 10 “The Scandal of Prediction” (2007)

Dave — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 15:16:00 +0000

Don’t cross a river if it is four feet deep on average.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
The Black Swan, Part 2, ch. 10 “The Scandal of Prediction” (2007)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- “Montaigne; or, The Skeptic,” Representative Men, Lecture 4 (1850)

Dave — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 21:59:06 +0000

Our life is March weather, savage and serene in one hour.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Montaigne; or, The Skeptic,” Representative Men, Lecture 4 (1850)

Adams, John -- Diary (1756-03-27)

Dave — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 15:37:25 +0000

The Stream of Life sometimes glides smoothly on, through flowry meadows and enamell’d planes. At other times it draggs a winding reluctant Course through offensive Boggs and dismal gloomy Swamps. The same road now leads us thro’ a spacious Country fraught with evry delightful object, Then plunges us at once, into miry Sloughs, or stops our passage with craggy and inaccessible mountains. The free roving Songster of the forest, now rambles unconfin’d, and hopps from Spray to Spray but the next hour perhaps he alights to pick the scattered Grain and is entangled in the Snare. The Ship, which, wafted by a favourable gale, sails prosperously upon the peaceful Surface, by a sudden Change of weather may be tossed by the Tempest, and driven by furious, opposite winds, upon rocks or quicksands. In short nothing in this world enjoys a constant Series of Joy and prosperity.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founder, statesman; US President (1797–1801)
Diary (1756-03-27)

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett -- “The Lady’s ‘Yes'”, st. 1 (1844)

Dave — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:27:10 +0000

‘Yes,’ I answered you last night;
‘No,’ this morning, sir, I say.
Colors seen by candle-light,
Will not look the same by day.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet
“The Lady’s ‘Yes'”, st. 1 (1844)