82 Black Swan Quotes

Following is our list of black swan quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about all black.

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Famous Black Swan Quotes

Black Swan theory tells us that things happen that were previously thought to be impossible – or never thought of at all. — Chris Voss

Swans in the winter air A white perfection have — W. H. Auden

The central idea in The Black Swan is that: rare events cannot be estimated from empirical observation since they are rare. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The swan, like the soul of the poet, By the dull world is ill understood. — Heinrich Heine

A black star appears, a point of darkness in the night sky's clarity. Point of darkness and gateway to repose. Reach out, pierce the fine fabric of the sheltering sky, take repose. — Paul Bowles

Blackbirds are the cellos of the deep farms. — Anne Stevenson

and I circle ten thousand years long; And I still don't know if I'm a falcon, a storm, or an unfinished song — Rainer Maria Rilke

no matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white. — Karl Popper

Swift is the arrow, dark is the thorn, the slate is clean, the future awaits, awake. — Patti Smith

A star shoots bleeding across the skyline, a companion to the black wind. Silence comes sweeping across everything. — Joë Bousquet

The evening advanced. The shadows lengthened. The waters of the lake grew pitchy black. The gliding of the ghostly swans became rare and more rare. — Wilkie Collins

Swans are majestic, beautiful looking creatures. With really ugly temperaments. — Michael Gira

furious flutter awakened hummingbird heart hello hello love — Megan McCafferty

No amount of observations of white swans can allow the inference that all swans are white, but the observation of a single black swan is sufficient to refute that conclusion. — David Hume

Swan flocks of lilies shoreward lying, In sweetness, not in music, dying. - John Greenleaf Whittier

Swan flocks of lilies shoreward lying, In sweetness, not in music, dying. — John Greenleaf Whittier

Swan Quotes

I like the night. Without the dark, we'd never see the stars. — Stephenie Meyer

Ugly ducklings don't turn into swans and glide off down the lake. Whether your sunglasses are on or off, you only see the world you make. — Bonnie Raitt

I have had so many great moments, but I would have to say that dancing the Swan in 'Swan Lake' was such a unique and passionate experience for me. It was such bloody hard work, even at that very early age, that I would not want to try to replicate it again now. — William Kempe

Black swan quote Life is like a piano, the white keys represent happiness and the black shows sadness, but as you go
Life is like a piano, the white keys represent happiness and the black shows sadness, but as you go through life's journey, remember that the black keys also makes music.

I don't have ugly ducklings turning into swans in my stories. I have ugly ducklings turning into confident ducks. — Maeve Binchy

I think it requires a bit of honesty, Swan Lake. - Graeme Murphy

I think it requires a bit of honesty, Swan Lake. — Graeme Murphy

Swan Lake is the most difficult thing to portray for a female ballet dancer; it really requires such specific qualities of articulation, agility, strength, and the arm work is something that takes a lot of training. — Benjamin Millepied

Black swan quote Escape from the black cloud that surrounds you. Then you will see your own light as radiant as the f
Escape from the black cloud that surrounds you. Then you will see your own light as radiant as the full moon.

Technical things are getting more mechanical. Take 'Swan Lake,' the Black Swan pas de deux. Now, my goodness, they're turning not just 32 fouettes - but double or triple pirouettes. — Natalia Makarova

Don’t always trust what you see. In a bull market even a duck looks like a swan. — Vijay Kedia

There was no reason for Bella Swan to cross paths with me. She would be avoided like the plague she was. — Stephenie Meyer

It was sort of the pattern to my life - I'd never been strong enough to deal with the things outside my control, to attack the enemies or outrun them. To avoid the pain. Always human and weak, the only thing I'd ever been able to do was keep going. Endure. Survive. — Stephenie Meyer

All Black Quotes

The basic tenet of black consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity. — Steven Biko

If white privilege is a thing, why are people working so hard to be black? All of the award shows and cultural events favor black culture. — Milo Yiannopoulos

I would like to remind the black ministry and indeed all black people that God is not in the habit of coming down from heaven to solve people's problems on earth. — Steven Biko

Black swan quote We're just trying to find some color in this black and white world
We're just trying to find some color in this black and white world

Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being. — Steven Biko

It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it. — Nelson Mandela

In the end anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing: anti-humanism. — Shirley Chisholm

Black swan quote I dont care if you're black, white, short, tall, skinny, rich   or poor. If you respect me I'll resp
I dont care if you're black, white, short, tall, skinny, rich or poor. If you respect me I'll respect you

The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat. — Confucius

We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are. — J. K. Rowling

We all require and want respect, man or woman, black or white. It's our basic human right. — Aretha Franklin

Violence is black children going to school for 12 years and receiving 6 years' worth of education. — Julian Bond

Swan Lake Quotes

You cannot dance an arabesque in 'Swan Lake' and 'Nutcracker' the same way. — Natalia Makarova

There's a double beauty whenever a swan Swims on a lake with her double thereon. — Thomas Hood

Those who awaken never rest in one place. Like swans, they rise and leave the lake. On the air they rise and fly an invisible course. Their food is knowledge. They live on emptiness. They have seen how to break free. Who can follow them? — Buddha

Black swan quote Black-and-white always looks modern, whatever that word means.
Black-and-white always looks modern, whatever that word means.

Would you just strap some toe shoes on and dance 'Swan Lake?' No. Would you just put a violin in your hand and - ? No. I felt that way about acting, and I was taught to feel that way. I didn't come to it on my own. — Ellen Barkin

The radio station was playing Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, a sure sign that things were much worse than they appeared. — Gary Shteyngart

Evolution writ large is the belief that a cloud of hydrogen will spontaneously invent extreme-ultraviolet lithography, perform Swan Lake, and write all the books in the British Museum. — Fred Reed

Black swan quote If a black cat crosses your path, it signifies that the animal is going somewhere.
If a black cat crosses your path, it signifies that the animal is going somewhere.

Those who have high thoughts are ever striving; they are not happy to remain in the same place. Like swans that leave their lake and rise into the air, they leave their home and fly for a higher home. — Dhammapada

I believe I am yet to dance my favorite role, but I am pretty open to adapting to different characters. I would love to be Odette in Swan Lake one day. I think that would be the ultimate role. — Misty Copeland

Let beeves and home-bred kine partake The sweets of Burn-mill meadow; The swan on still St. Mary's Lake Float double, swan and shadow! — William Wordsworth

Black Art Quotes

The black artist is dangerous. Black art controls the 'Negro's' reality, negates negative influences, and creates positive images. — Sonia Sanchez

Besides black art, there is only automation and mechanization. - Federico Garcia Lorca

Besides black art, there is only automation and mechanization. — Federico Garcia Lorca

Of those who start TaeKwonDo training, only about 5% stick with it until they achieve the Black Belt Rank. Then perhaps 80% of those who earn a Black stop there. — Duk Sung Son

A black belt only covers two inches of your ass. You have to cover the rest. — Royce Gracie

Black and white is a very minimalist art form and unlike color photographs does not pretend to mimic the world in a manner similar to the way the human eye might perceive... Black and white is essentially an abstract way to interpret and transform what one might refer to as reality. — Roger Ballen

Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts -- a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments. — Henry David Thoreau

Considering the current sad state of our computer programs, software development is clearly still a black art, and cannot yet be called an engineering discipline. — William J. Clinton

In this perilous world, if a black boy wanted to live a halfway normal life and die a natural death he had to learn early the art of how to get along with white folks. — Benjamin E. Mays

Some people never learn the art of compromise. Everything is either black or white. They do no recognize, or will not concede, that the equally important color gray is a mixture of black and white. — Waite Phillips

Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art. — Maya Angelou

People Writing About Black Swan

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by Chris Voss

Chris Voss
quotes on leadership, relationships and success

137 1
Read quotes by W. H. Auden

W. H. Auden
quotes on love

431 3476
Read quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Nassim Nicholas Taleb
quotes on capitalism, money and education

353 1778
Read quotes by Heinrich Heine

Heinrich Heine

222 1434
Read quotes by Paul Bowles

Paul Bowles
quotes on leadership, love and bible

38 397
Read quotes by Anne Stevenson

Anne Stevenson
quotes on education, leadership and life

32 201

More Black Swan Quotes

Missing a train is only painful if you run after it! Likewise, not matching the idea of success others expect from you is only painful if that’s what you are seeking. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

One is Nassim Taleb, who popularized the idea of the black swan, which is that no number of white swans disproves the existence of a black swan. You can never conclusively say all swans are white. You can never establish a final truth. All you can do is work with the best explanation you have today, which is still far better than ignorance. — Naval Ravikant

Perfection is not just about control, it is also about letting go. — Vincent Cassel

The only person standing in your way is you. — Vincent Cassel

Fall down again, Bella?' No, Emmett, I punched a werewolf in the face. — Stephenie Meyer

Holland is a dream, Monsieur, a dream of gold and smoke-smokier by day, more gilded by night. And night and day that dream is peopled with Lohengrins like these, dreamily riding their black bicycles with high handle-bars, funereal swans constantly drifting throughout the whole country, around the seas, along the canals. — Albert Camus

So the world is much more correlated than we give credit to. And so we see more of what Nassim Taleb calls "black swan events" - rare events happen more often than they should because the world is more correlated. — Richard Thaler

Remember that you are a Black Swan. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Coal-black is better than another hue In that it scorns to bear another hue; For all the water in the ocean Can never turn the swan's black legs to white, Although she lave them hourly in the flood. — William Shakespeare

The raven once in snowy plumes was drest, White as the whitest dove's unsullied breast, Fair as the guardian of the Capitol, Soft as the swan; a large and lovely fowl His tongue, his prating tongue had changed him quite To sooty blackness from the purest white. — Ovid

People who think they know what is going to happen next are fools. Surprises - or what the brilliant author Nassim Taleb calls 'Black Swans' - are inevitable. Some are likely to be desperately unpleasant too — Martin Wolf

A rare bird on this earth, like nothing so much as a black swan. — Juvenal

In economic life and history more generally, just about everything of consequence comes from black swans; ordinary events have paltry effects in the long term. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

With 'Black Swan,' the ballerina saga flips its tiara and goes on a hallucinatory bender, a scary acid trip where transfiguration and disfiguration meet. — James Wolcott

I always believed I was an ugly duckling in a family of swans, you know? I was such a black sheep, and it was the same way in high school... I was just kind of that awkward theater kid with a bunch of athletes... it was very Glee. — Lindsay Pearce

Ideas come and go, stories stay. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I have this really morbid, awesome love for the movie Black Swan. — Sherri Saum

Slashing its way to the finish line, Black Swan is the first ballet movie for highbrow horror fans for whom ballet itself signifies little to nothing. Those of us who know and love ballet can only look on it with a different kind of horror. — James Wolcott

Everything will be better in the morning. It always is. — Sayings

A rare bird upon the earth and very much like a black swan. — Juvenal

No number of sightings of white swans can prove the theory that all swans are white. The sighting of just one black one may disprove it. — Karl Popper

Where are the leaders?' Sapphique asked. 'In the fortresses,' the swan replied. 'And the poets?' 'Lost in dreams of other worlds.' 'And the craftsmen?' 'Forging machines to challenge the darkness.' 'And the Wise, who made the world?' The swan lowered its black neck sadly. 'Dwindled to crones and sorcerers in towers. — Catherine Fisher

Last year when "Black Swan," "True Grit" and "King's Speech" all grossed over $100 million, it gave studios and independent financiers the confidence to make daring movies. You know, and not do the same old you-know-what. — Harvey Weinstein

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