None of this means, however, that a business or stock is an intelligent purchase simply because it is unpopular; a contrarian approach is just as foolish as a follow-the-crowd strategy. What's required is thinking rather than polling. Unfortunately, Bertrand Russell's observation about life in general applies with unusual force in the financial world: "Most men would rather die than think. Many do."

First, many in Wall Street - a community in which quality control is not prized - will sell investors anything they will buy.

You are lucky in life if you have the right heroes. I advise all of you, to the extent you can, to pick out a few heroes

The three most important words in investing...Margin of Safety.

The advice "you never go broke taking a profit" is foolish.

In earlier years, a lesser effort produced literally dozens of comparable opportunities. It is difficult to be objective about the causes for such diminution of one's own productivity. Three factors that seem apparent are: (1) a somewhat changed market environment; (2) our increased size; and (3) substantially more competition.

Personally, I really hope I can treat everyone equally. I think I have done a pretty good job so far but I know I can do it better.