Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good results.

I made my first investment at age eleven. I was wasting my life up until then.

I've already written a section in the annual report for next year explaining why I think in one case that the figures on our balance sheet as calculated are wrong. But it's the standard way of doing it. It's holy writ. The SEC wants us to do it that way, and we'll do it that way, and I'll explain why I think it's wrong and shareholders can read it and see whether they agree with my logic or don't.

You don't want 300 million Americans putting their money under the mattress.

That goes back to 1932, although it was really implemented in '33 under Jesse Jones, and it invested in mostly banks initially and preferred stock and that sort of thing. So there are two things needed in the system, the one that's needed overwhelmingly is liquidity. I mean, when people are trying to [unintelligible], there has to be somebody there to buy.

Well, it may be all right in practice, but it will never work in theory

Failing conventionally is the route to go; as a group, lemmings may have a rotten image, but no individual lemming has ever received bad press