It makes no difference to a widow with her savings in a 5 percent passbook account whether she pays 100 percent income tax on her interest income during a period of zero inflation or pays no income tax during years of 5 percent inflation. Either way, she is 'taxed' in a manner that leaves her no real income whatsoever. Any money she spends comes right out of capital. She would find outrageous a 100 percent income tax but doesn't seem to notice that 5 percent inflation is the economic equivalent.

If at first you do succeed, quit trying on investing.

Managers thinking about accounting issues should never forget one of Abraham Lincoln's favorite riddles: How many legs does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg? The answer: Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.

Mr. Market is your servant, not your guide.

We don't get paid for being busy, we get paid for being right.

When I take a look at a company's annual report, if I don't understand it, they don't want me to understand it.

I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.