Inherited wealth is a big handicap to happiness. It is as certain death to ambition as cocaine is to morality. - William Vanderbilt

Dealmaking beats working. That’s why there are deals that make no sense. - Peter Drucker

I want the whole of Europe to have one currency; it will make trading much easier. - Napolean Bonaparte

If, after half an hour, you haven’t figured out who the patsy is, then you’re the patsy. - Warren Buffett on shares and poker

Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It’s to see my dividends coming in. - John D. Rockefeller

In a difficult business, no sooner is one problem solved than another surfaces - never is there just one cockroach in the kitchen. - Warren Buffett

I look for businesses in which I think I can predict what they’re going to look like in ten to fifteen years time. Take Wrigley’s chewing gum. I don’t think the internet is going to change how people chew gum. - Warren Buffett

The successful man is one who makes more than his wife can spend. And the successful woman is one who can find such a man. - Bienvenida Buck

All paid employments absorb and degrade the mind. - Aristotle

I think a lot of people initially thought that the ‘e’ in e-business was more important than the business. - Michael Dell

We are not a stock that you can sleep well with at night. We are a volatile stock . . . For a short-term investor, or for a small investor, I wouldn’t invest in internet stocks. - Jeff Bezos

A fully fledged economic downturn will cause nastier things to come out of the woodwork. The old market saying is: ‘Recessions uncover what auditors do not.’ - Philip Coggan

It is inconceivable that anyone will divulge a truly effective get-rich scheme for the price of a book . . . There is ample opportunity to use wealth in this world, and neither I nor my friends, nor anyone else I have ever met, has so much of it that they are interested in putting themselves at a disadvantage by sharing their secrets. - Victor Niederhoffer

Deciding on an investment philosophy is kind of like picking a spouse. Do you want someone who is volatile and romantic and emotional, or do you want someone who is steady and trustworthy and down to earth. If you want a successful investment career, you’d better bind yourself to a style you can live with. - Ralph Wanger

No mutual fund manager who relies on market timing has kept his job for fifteen years. Individual investors who try to time the market will be tossed on the same horns. - Ralph Wanger

I got positive feelings when I saw that Taco Bell’s headquarters was stuck behind a bowling alley. When I saw those executives operating out of that grim little bunker, I was thrilled. Obviously they weren’t wasting money on landscaping the office. - Peter Lynch

Trying to sell an illiquid stock in a down market brings to mind the galley slaves in Ben-Hur, chained to their bench while the ship sinks. - Ralph Wanger

Investing in a market where people believe in efficiency is like playing bridge with someone who has been told it doesn’t do any good to look at the cards. - Warren Buffett on the efficient market hypothesis

I’d be a bum on the street with a tin cup if the markets were efficient. - Warren Buffett on the efficient market hypothesis

The list of qualities [an investor ought to have] include patience, self-reliance, common sense, a tolerance for pain, open-mindedness, detachment, persistence, humility, flexibility, a willingness to do independent research, an equal willingness to admit mistakes, and the ability to ignore general panic. - Peter Lynch

It’s not whether you’re right or wrong that’s important, but how much money you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong. - George Soros

I have noticed that everyone who ever told me that the markets are efficient is poor. - Larry Hite

Great stocks are extremely hard to find. If they weren’t, then everyone would own them. - Philip A. Fisher

I like buying companies that can be run by monkeys - because one day they will be. - Peter Lynch

The more the theory of efficient markets is believed, the less efficient the markets become. - George Soros

I want a one-armed economist so that the guy could never make a statement and then say ‘on the other hand…’. - Harry S. Truman

Never invest in any idea you can’t illustrate with a crayon. - Peter Lynch

Never pay the slightest attention to what a company president ever says about his stock. - Bernard Baruch