When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. @John Muir

City-states organize by tinkering; nation-states produce bureaucracies, empty suits, Bernankes, deficits, and the toobigtofail. Too obvious. @nntaleb

Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don’t need to be done. @Andy Rooney

The essence of Stoic wisdom: not to invest one’s hopes in anything that lies in the hands of the Goddess of Fortune. @alaindebotton

Unreflective people say, “But where are the intellectuals today?” – as if the problem were one of supply rather than (their) demand. @alaindebotton

Even if we learn from our mistakes, life is continually too new and uncharted for us (me) to avoid outright idiocy on a regular basis. @alaindebotton

Success is to be in middle adulthood what you dreamed to be in late childhood. The rest comes from loss of control. @nntaleb

The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. @Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do. @Helen Keller

You will get the most attention from those who hate you. No friend, no admirer, and no partner will flatter you with equal curiosity. @nntaleb

Office life would not be possible without the hard take-offs and landings effected by coffee and alcohol. @alaindebotton