You want to deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end.

As I continued through Cicero's pages, I found much more material celebrating my way of life.

I bet Richard Fuld doesn't have an ounce of contrition. It's just megalomania. When it's like that, you need rules to prevent catastrophe. When banks are borrowing the government's credit rating, you need rules to prevent stupid things.

I'd rather throw a viper down my shirt front than hire a compensation consultant.

Understanding both the power of compound interest and the difficulty of getting it is the heart and soul of understanding a lot of things.

Suppose you were a real estate investor with a 1/3 interest in the best apartment complex in town, the best mall, and the best office building. Would you feel like a poor, undiversified investor? No! But as soon as you get into stocks, people feel this way. Partly, people need to justify their fees.

I've heard that one-half of the students at elite schools want to go into private equity or hedge funds. They want to keep up with their age cohorts at Goldman. This can't possibly end well in terms of meeting these expectations.