Writing a check separates a commitment from a conversation.

Intrinsic value can be defined simply: It is the discounted value of the cash that can be taken out of a business during its remaining life.

Accounting is the language of business.

Would your reply possibly be this? Well, it all depends on what my tax rate will be on the gain you're saying we're going to make. If the taxes are too high, I would rather leave the money in my savings account, earning a quarter of 1 percent. Only in Grover Norquist's imagination does such a response exist.

My father was the best person i've ever known.

Money to some extent sometimes let you be in more interesting environments. But it can't change how many people love you or how healthy you are.

Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir Isaac's talents didn't extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, 'I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.' If he had not been traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well have gone on to discover the Fourth Law of Motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases.