Everybody's got a different circle of competence. The important thing is not how big the circle is. The important thing is staying inside the circle.

At this point, when treasury bills, seven day treasury bills at 1/20th of one percent, it's not because people want to earn 1/20th of one percent, it's because they trust the fact the treasury will give it back to them next week.

The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball.

What the wise do in the beginning, fools do in the end.

I have three boxes on my desk: In, Out, and Too Hard.

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

Let only individuals contribute - with sensible limits per election. Otherwise, we are well on our way to ensuring that a government of the moneyed, by the moneyed, and for the moneyed shall not perish from the earth.