Pith

The opposite of manliness isn't cowardice; it's technology.

- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (forthcoming)

See also 'white wine', 'aftershave', 'gym membership' and 'Amazon Kindle'.

Word to the unwise

Alas, with tools, and fools, anything can be easy to find.

- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan

Vindication!

A private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allow you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books.

- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan

Black Swans

Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Black Swan is a Penguin book, largely orange and white.