In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

I like to buy things I can understand. I do a lot of research on things.

Can you know you can have institutions that put curbs on that in various ways, and actually what the banks, you know, they have various capital ratios and that sort of thing, but the banks got around them, I mean, they set up sieves and that sort of thing just to get more leverage. People love leverage when it's working. I mean, it's so easy to borrow money from a guy at X and put it out at X.

We can afford to lose money - even a lot of money. But we can't afford to lose reputation - even a shred of reputation.

Focus on return on equity, not earnings per share.

The market system rewards me outlandishly for what I do, but that doesn't mean I'm any more deserving of a good life than a teacher or a doctor or someone who fights in Afghanistan.

If you're extremely rich, and you have got children, my theory was, you give them enough so they can do anything, but not enough so they can do nothing.