We don't have to be smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest.

In my opinion, the entire field of investment management, involving hundreds of billions of dollars, would be more satisfactorily conducted if everyone had a good yardstick for measurement of ability and sensibly applied it.

In other words, the percentage change in book value in any given year is likely to be reasonably close to that year's change in intrinsic value.

Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.

Investors, of course, can, by their own behavior make stock ownership highly risky. And many do. Active trading, attempts to "time" market movements, inadequate diversification, the payment of high and unnecessary fees to managers and advisors, and the use of borrowed money can destroy the decent returns that a life-long owner of equities would otherwise enjoy. Indeed, borrowed money has no place in the investor's tool kit.

We're perfectly willing to trade away a big payoff for a certain payoff.

If you own the only newspaper in town, up until the last five years or so, you have pricing power and you didn't have to go to the office.