Nassim Nicholas Taleb author of bestselling books The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness and Antifragile is one of the most prolific thinkers of 21st century. Applauded by the skeptics and empiricist and criticized by the economists and journalists Nassim’s ideas have stood test of time and given a platform for emerging empiricist to move forward.

 

Here we list 25 Aphorisms for our readers to enjoy.

 

1. Never take investment advice from someone who has to work for a living.

 

2. If someone is making an effort to ignore you, he is not ignoring you.

 

3. I never trust a man who doesn't have enemies.

 

4. Life is about execution rather than purpose.

 

5. Much of the difference between what is heaven and what is hell is branding.

 

6.  You are as good as how nice you are to people you don't have to be nice to. 

 

7. People reveal much more about themselves while lying.

 

8.  Most mistakes get worse when you try to correct them. 

 

9. People tend to whisper when they say the truth and raise their voice when they lie.

 

10.  Trust those who trust you and distrust those who are suspicious of others.

 

11.  To understand how something works, figure out how to break it.

 

12. The ultimate freedom lies in not having to explain "why" you did something. 

 

13. When someone writes "I dislike you but I agree with you", I read "I dislike you because I agree with you."

 

14. People are much less interested in what you are trying to show them than what you are trying to hide.

 

15. Atheists are just modern versions of religious fundamentalists: they both take religion too literally.

 

16. What counts is not what people say about you, it is how much energy they spend saying it.

 

17. You can tell how poor someone feels by the number of times he references money in his conversation.

 

18. The first, and hardest, step to wisdom: avert the standard assumption that people know what they want.

 

19. An enemy who becomes a friend will always be a friend; a friend turned enemy will remain so forever.

 

20. When we want to do something while unconsciously certain to fail, we seek advice so we can blame someone else for the failure.

 

21. If something looks irrational —and has been so for long time —odds are you have a wrong definition of rationality.

 

22. The saying goes "those who can, do; those who can't do, teach". But I've shown that those who can't do shouldn't teach.

 

23. The general principle of antifragility, it is much better to do things you cannot explain than explain things you cannot do.

 

24. Saying someone good at making profits but not good at managing risk is like saying someone is a great surgeon except for cases when the patients die.

 

25. To have a great day: 1) Smile at a stranger, 2) Surprise someone by saying something unexpectedly nice, 3) Give some genuine attention to an elderly, 4) Invite someone who doesn't have many friends for coffee, 5) Humiliate an economist, publicly, or create deep anxiety inside a Harvard professor.