In that same vein:
Rank beliefs not according to their plausibility but by the harm they may cause.
-Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan p.203
It does not matter how frequently something succeeds if failure is too costly to bear.
-Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Fooled by Randomness
Better: Rank beliefs according to their plausibility multiplied by the harm they may cause.
This is our monthly thread for collecting these little gems and pearls of wisdom, rationality-related quotes you've seen recently, or had stored in your quotesfile for ages, and which might be handy to link to in one of our discussions.