Reality...quoted

"To be genuinely empirical is to reflect reality as faithfully as possible; to be honourable implies not fearing the appearance and consequences of being outlandish. The next time someone pesters you with unneeded advice, gently remind him of the fate of the monk whom Ivan the Terrible put to death for delivering uninvited (and moralizing) advice. It works as a short-term cure."

"History and societies do not crawl. They make jumps. They go from fracture to fracture, with a few vibrations in between. Yet we (and historians) like to believe in the predicatable, small incremental progression.

It struck me, a belief that has never left me since, that we are just a great machine for looking backward, and that humans are great at self-delusion. Every year that goes by increases my belief in this distortion."

"My paternal uncle was not too bothered by my political ideas (these come and go); he was outraged that I used them as an excuse to dress slopily. To him, inelegance on the part of a close family member was the mortal offense."

The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb