All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there

Almost all good businesses engage in 'pain today, gain tomorrow' activities.

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.

A lot of our respected financial institutions are just casinos in drag.

The idea of excessive diversification is madness.

The model I like to sort of simplify the notion of what goes on in a market for common stocks is the pari-mutuel system at the racetrack. If you stop to think about it, a pari-mutuel system is a market. Everybody goes there and bets and the odds change based on what's bet. That's what happens in the stock market.

Cicero's words also increased my personal satisfaction by supporting my long-standing rejection of a conventional point of view.