6. 2.0
I was lucky to have the right heroes. Tell me who
your heroes are and I’ll tell you how you’ll turn
out to be. The qualities of the one you admire are
the traits that you, with a little practice, can make
your own, and that, if practiced, will become
habit-forming.
12. 5.0
A story that was passed down from Ben Graham illustrates the lemming
like behavior of the crowd: "Let me tell you the story of the oil prospector
who met St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. When told his occupation, St.
Peter said, "Oh, I'm really sorry. You seem to meet all the tests to get into
heaven. But we've got a terrible problem. See that pen over there? That's
where we keep the oil prospectors waiting to get into heaven. And it's
filled—we haven't got room for even one more." The oil prospector
thought for a minute and said, "Would you mind if I just said four
words to those folks?" "I can't see any harm in that," said St. Pete. So
the old-timer cupped his hands and yelled out, "Oil discovered in hell!"
Immediately, the oil prospectors wrenched the lock off the door of the pen
and out they flew, flapping their wings as hard as they could for the lower
regions. "You know, that's a pretty good trick," St. Pete said. "Move in.
The place is yours. You've got plenty of room." The old fellow scratched
his head and said, "No. If you don't mind, I think I'll go along with the
rest of 'em. There may be some truth to that rumor after all.
14. 6.0
Of the billionaires I have known, money just
brings out the basic traits in them. If they were
jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks
with a billion dollars.
15. 7.0
The fact that people will be full of greed, fear, or
folly is predictable. The sequence is not
predictable.
16. 8.0
It's better to hang out with people better than you.
Pick out associates whose behavior is better than
yours and you'll drift in that direction.
22. 11.0
Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking
boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely
to be more productive than energy devoted to
patching leaks.
23. 12.0
In the business world, the rearview mirror is
always clearer than the windshield.
24. 13.0
Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's
been swimming naked.
28. 15.0
I gave a talk last year; some student at Harvard
asked me, ‘Who should I go to work for?’ I said
go to work for whoever you admire the most. I got
a call from the dean about two weeks later. He
said, ‘What are you telling these kids?’ They're
all becoming self-employed.
29. 16.0
I asked him what he wanted to do for his career,
and he replied that he wanted to go into a
particular field, but thought he should work for
McKinsey for a few years first to add to his
resume. To me that's like saving sex for your old
age. It makes no sense.
31. 17.0
I never attempt to make money on the stock
market. I buy on the assumption that they could
close the market the next day and not reopen it for
five years.
32. 18.0
I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors.
Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when
others are fearful.
37. 21.0
The perfect amount of money to leave children is
enough money so that they would feel they could
do anything, but not so much that they could do
nothing.
41. 23.0
Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in
a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the
subway.
42. 24.0
We believe that according the name 'investors' to
institutions that trade actively is like calling
someone who repeatedly engages in one-night
stands a 'romantic.'
44. 25.0
Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of
motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir
Isaac's talents didn't extend to investing: He lost
a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining
later, 'I can calculate the movement of the stars,
but not the madness of men.' If he had not been
traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well
have gone on to discover the Fourth Law of
Motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease
as motion increases.
45. 26.0
When you combine ignorance and leverage, you
get some pretty interesting results.
47. 28.0
The most important quality for an investor is
temperament, not intellect... You need a
temperament that neither derives great pleasure
from being with the crowd or against the crowd.
48. 29.0
I like to go for cinches. I like to shoot fish in a
barrel. But I like to do it after the water has run
out.
50. 30.0
The smarter the journalists are, the better off
society is. For to a degree, people read the press to
inform themselves-and the better the teacher, the
better the student body.
52. 31.0
You only have to do a very few things right in
your life so long as you don't do too many things
wrong.
53. 32.0
You do things when the opportunities come along.
I've had periods in my life when I've had a
bundle of ideas come along, and I've had long dry
spells. If I get an idea next week, I'll do
something. If not, I won't do a damn thing.
55. 33.0
Putting people into homes, though a desirable
goal, shouldn’t be our country’s primary objective.
Keeping them in their homes should be the
ambition.
57. 34.0
I don’t have a problem with guilt about money. The
way I see it is that my money represents an enormous
number of claim checks on society. It's like I have
these little pieces of paper that I can turn into
consumption. If I wanted to, I could hire 10,000
people to do nothing but paint my picture every day
for the rest of my life. And the GNP would go up.
But the utility of the product would be zilch, and I
would be keeping those 10,000 people from doing
AIDS research, or teaching, or nursing. I don't do
that though.
59. 35.0
I'll tell you why I like the cigarette business. It
costs a penny to make. Sell it for a dollar. It's
addictive. And there's fantastic brand loyalty.
61. 36.0
It gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or
someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another
hole, bury it again and pay people to stand
around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone
watching from Mars would be scratching their
head.
65. 38.0
Much success can be attributed to inactivity. Most
investors cannot resist the temptation to constantly
buy and sell.
66. 39.0
The best way to get success is to deserve success. I
have to look them in the eye and decide whether
they love the business or they love the money. It’s
fine if they love the money, but they have to love
the business more. Why do I come in at 7 every
morning, I can’t wait to get to work. It’s because
I get to paint my own painting and I like
applause.
68. 40.0
I just naturally want to do things that make
sense. In my personal life too, I don’t care what
other rich people are doing. I don’t want a 405
foot boat just because someone else has a 400 foot
boat.
72. 42.0
I enjoy what I do, I tap dance to work every day. I
work with people I love, doing what I love. I spend
my time thinking about the future, not the past. The
future is exciting. As Bertrand Russell says,
“Success is getting what you want, happiness is
wanting what you get.” I won the ovarian lottery the
day I was born and so did all of you. We’re all
successful, intelligent, and educated. To focus on
what you don’t have is a terrible mistake. With the
gifts all of us have, if you are unhappy, it’s your
own fault.
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