A pack of lemmings looks like a group of rugged individualists compared with Wall Street when it gets a concept in its teeth.

The market system rewards me outlandishly for what I do, but that doesn't mean I'm any more deserving of a good life than a teacher or a doctor or someone who fights in Afghanistan.

The worst sort of business is one that grows rapidly, requires significant capital to engender the growth, and then earns little or no money. Think airlines. Here a durable competitive advantage has proven elusive ever since the days of the Wright Brothers. Indeed, if a farsighted capitalist had been present at Kitty Hawk, he would have done his successors a huge favor by shooting Orville down.

Never be afraid to ask for too much when selling or offer too little when buying.

I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.

Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.

All day you wait for the pitch you like; then when the fielders are asleep, you step up and hit it.