How did you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.
Books… are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with ’em, then we grow out of ’em and leave ’em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.
Paper money eventually goes down to its intrinsic value zero.
There are three kinds of liars: liars, damned liars, and statisticians
Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much
I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can’t stop eating peanuts
Gold has worked down from Alexander’s time … When something holds good for two thousand years I do not believe it can be so because of prejudice or mistaken theory
The most happy marriage I can picture or imagine to myself would be the union of a deaf man to a blind woman
The longer I operated on Wall Street the more distrustful I became of tips and inside information of every kind. Given time, I believe that inside information can break the Bank of England
Experts are people who know tomorrow why yesterday’s prediction didn’t turn out today
How could I have been so far off base? All my life I’ve known better than to depend on the experts
Crowds are influenced mainly by images produced by the judicious employment of words and formulas
You have a choice of trusting the natural stability of gold or the honesty and intelligence of members of the government and with all due respect to these gentleman, I advise you as long as the capitalist system lasts, vote for gold
One can relish the varied idiocy of human action during a panic to the full, for while it is a time of great tragedy, nothing is being lost but money
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press On” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race
A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing
There is no sphere of human thought in which it is easier to show superficial cleverness and the appearance of superior wisdom than in discussing questions of currency and exchange
This stock market thing was a great game, but, after all, everybody just can’t live on gambling. Somebody has to do some work
You know what the fellow said: In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock
There are several measures that the Fed (or any central bank) can take to reduce the risk of falling into deflation. The U.S. Government has a technology, called a printing press (or, today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at essentially no cost
“Inflation is taxation without legislation.”
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
Socialism is GREAT – UNTIL you run out of other people’s money
If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
It is however always important to remember that the ability to see things in their correct perspective may be, and often is, divorced from the ability to reason correctly and vice versa. That is why a man may be a very good theorist and yet talk absolute nonsense….
There is nothing as stupid as an educated man if you get him off the thing he was educated in
The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off
In economics the majority is always wrong
We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit
The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking
Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much
When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I’m beginning to believe it
I don’t mind what Congress does, as long as they don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses
I took a speed reading course and read ‘War and Peace’ in twenty minutes. It involves Russia
Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it
An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn’t take his education too seriously
The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat
Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever
Political correctness is tyranny with manners
You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality
When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity; when many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion
Sex and religion are closer to each other than either might prefer
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former
I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake
If you are going through hell, keep going
God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh
If you can count your money, you don’t have a billion dollars
Facts are the enemy of truth
A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship
All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher
Be nice to people on your way up because you meet them on your way down
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence
The secret of success is to know something nobody else knows
Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains
I would have made a good Pope
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names
He who hesitates is a damned fool
You can pretend to be serious; you can’t pretend to be witty
Behind every great fortune there is a crime
The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his
Hell is a half-filled auditorium
Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you
Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education
Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it
Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair
Economists are pessimists: they’ve predicted 8 of the last 3 depressions
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics
The economy depends about as much on economists as the weather does on weather forecasters
Gold is Money. That’s it
The abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and
money began to play an important part in determining
elections. Later on, this process of corruption spread to
the law courts. And then to the army, and finally the
Republic was subjected to the rule of emperors
The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that
their interests and his own are the same
The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all
history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself
or be ruled by a small elite
Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty
has always come from the subjects of government. The
history of liberty is the history of resistance. The history
of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental
power, not the increase of it
The voice of protest, of warning, of appeal is never more
needed than when the clamor of fife and drum, echoed
by the press and too often by the pulpit, is bidding all
men fall in and keep step and obey in silence the
tyrannous word of command. Then, more than ever, it is
the duty of the good citizen not to be silent
The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and
guided, men are seldom forced to act, but they are
constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not
destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize,
but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a
people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than
a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the
government is the shepherd
If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there’d be a shortage of sand
Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program
The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another
Too many people spend money they earned..to buy things they don’t want..to impress people that they don’t like
All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that’s an alibi for my ignorance
The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has
Buy land. They ain’t making any more of the stuff
There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
There is no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you
There are one hundred men seeking security to one able man who is willing to risk his fortune
In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy
I buy when other people are selling
Going to work for a large company is like getting on a train. Are you going sixty miles an hour or is the train going sixty miles an hour and you’re just sitting still?
Formula for success: Rise early, work hard, strike oil
The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights
There is crack in everything, that’s the way the light gets in
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
“It’s déjà vu all over again”
When the devaluation dust settles, Gold will still be around
“Seek truth from facts” 實事求是
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident
“Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn’t”
“It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice.”
“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.”