It takes a man a long time to learn all the lessons of all his mistakes.

A loss never bothers me after I take it. I forget it overnight. But being wrong - not taking the loss - that is what does damage to the pocketbook and to the soul.

Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon.

I did precisely the wrong thing. The cotton showed me a loss and I kept it. The wheat showed me a profit and I sold it out. Of all the speculative blunders there are few greater than trying to average a losing game. Always sell what shows you a loss and keep what shows you a profit.

Professional traders have always had some system or other based upon their experience and governed either by their attitude towards speculation or by their desires.

It took me five years to learn to play the game intelligently enough to make big money when I was right.

One of the most helpful things that anybody can learn is to give up trying to catch the last eighth - or the first. These two are the most expensive eighths in the world. They have cost stock traders, in the aggregate, enough millions of dollars to build a concrete highway across the continent.