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It is wiser to wait for self-destruction.
It is perplexing but amusing to observe people getting extremely excited about things you don’t care about; it is sinister to watch them ignore things you believe are fundamental.
It takes a lot of intellect and confidence to accept that what makes sense doesn’t really make sense.
Let us find what risks we can measure and these are the risks we should be taking.
What they call “risk” I call opportunity; but what they call “low risk” opportunity I call sucker problem.
If you detect a repressed smile on the salesperson’s face, you paid too much for it.
There are three types of large corporations: those about to go bankrupt, those that are bankrupt and hide it, those that are bankrupt and don’t know it.
The left holds that because markets are stupid models should be smart; the right believes that because models are stupid markets should be smart. Alas, it never hit both sides that both markets and models are very stupid.
When positive, show net; when negative, show gross.
Suckers think that you cure greed with money, addiction with substances, expert problems with experts, banking with bankers, economics with economists, and debt crises with debt spending.
If something (say, a stock price) looks slightly out of line, it is out of line. If it looks way out of line, you are wrong in your method of evaluation.
The main difference between government bailouts and smoking is that in some rare cases the statement “this is my last cigarette” holds true.
Anyone who likes meetings should be banned from attending meetings.
In poor countries, officials receive explicit bribes; in D.C. they get the sophisticated implicit, unspoken promise to work for large corporations.
Never take investment advice from someone who has to work for a living.
Money corrupts those who talk (and write) about it more than those who earn it.
Bring the good news in trickles, the bad news in lumps.
Never ask your client for advice.
Mediocre men tend to be outraged by small insults but passive, subdued, and silent in front of very large ones.†
It is a sign of weakness to avoid showing signs of weakness.
Risk takers never complain. They do.
The weak shows his strength and hides his weaknesses; the magnificent exhibits his weaknesses like ornaments. –
Magnificence is defined by the intersection of reluctant praise by your enemies and criticism by your friends, greatness by their union.
The traits I respect are erudition and the courage to stand up when half-men are afraid for their reputation. Any idiot can be intelligent.
The mediocre regret their words more than their silence; finer men regret their silence more than their words; the magnificent has nothing to regret.
Contra the prevailing belief, “success” isn’t being on top of a hierarchy, it is standing outside all hierarchies.
A verbal threat is the most authentic certificate of impotence.
The first, and hardest, step to wisdom: avert the standard assumption that people know what they want.
Be polite, courteous, and gentle, but ignore comments, praise, and criticism from people you wouldn’t hire. –
