It is investment, i.e. the increased production of material wealth in the shape of capital goods, which alone increases national wealth.

The social object of skilled investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and ignorance which envelope our future.

I feel no shame at being found still owning a share when the bottom of the market comes…I would go much further than that. I should say that it is from time to time the duty of a serious investor to accept the depreciation of his holdings with equanimity and without reproaching himself. … An investor…should be aiming primarily at long-period results, and should be solely judged by these.

It is impossible that the intention of the entrepreneur who has borrowed in order to increase investment can become effective (except in substitution for investment by other entrepreneurs which would have occurred otherwise) at a faster rate than the public decide to increase their savings

A conventional valuation which is established as the outcome of the mass psychology of a large number of ignorant individuals is liable to change violently as the result of a sudden fluctuation of opinion due to factors which do not really make much difference to the prospective yield; since there will be no strong roots of conviction to hold it steady.

I do not know which makes a man more conservative - to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past.

The old saying holds. Owe your banker �1000 and you are at his mercy; owe him �1 million and the position is reversed.