The Power Tie

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
~Herbert Spencer

Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding. Lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless. ~Warren Buffett

There a man never attains virtue and excellence through power; rather he attains power and authority through his virtue…study wisdom, therefore, and when you have learnt it, do not neglect it, for I say to you without hesitation that you can attain authority through wisdom. ~ Ælfred, The Great (849-899AD)

Ælfred, The Great

There are few fields of endeavor where history counts so little as in finance.
~John Kenneth Galbraith

A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men. ~Thomas Carlyle

Who lies for you will lie against you. ~Bosnian proverb

Huge markets attract people who measure themselves by money. If someone goes through life and measures themselves solely by how much they have, or how much money they earned last year, sooner or later they’re going to end up in trouble ~Warren Buffett

It’s forgiveness that makes us what we are. Without forgiveness, there would be no history. Without that hope, there would be no art, for every work of art is in some way an act of forgiveness. Without that dream, there would be no love, for every act of love is in some way a promise to forgive. We live on because we can love, and we love because we can forgive. ~Greg David Roberts, Shantaram

$$, Fear and Politics

The trick is to stop thinking of it as your money. - An IRS Auditor

The less prudence with which others conduct their affairs, the greater prudence with which we should conduct our own affairs. - Warren Buffett

The Old One had taught him that. One need not be afraid. Fear was a thing of the mind, and if one did not offer it a place, it had none. - Louis L'Amour, The Californios

The true rule, in determining to embrace or reject anything, is not whether it has any evil in it; but whether it has more evil than good. There are few things whilly evil or wholly good. Almost everything...is an inseperable compound of the two; so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded. - Abraham Lincoln

It doesn't matter how the people vote; what matters is who counts the votes and how they do it. - Stalin

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. - Benjamin Franklin

It doesn't matter where you are coming from...it matters where you're going to. - Arnold Schwarzenegger

I have fewer misgivings concerning our excellence in the natural, i.e. exact sciences [mathematics, atomic physics, electronics, etc.] than the field of political and social "sciences", which are by no means exact and where superficiality, lack of knowledge, even fakery cannot so easily be found out and shown up. A political columnist, a political candidate or office-holder, a professor of political science may have a long record of wrong predictions and of faulty analyses and of eloquent but ill-informed views, especially on foreign affairs; and he may very well survive as a respected oracle. An engineer on the other hand, whose design for a bridge is faulty, a mathematician or physicist whose equations do not equate will soon lose prestige and professional standing. -- Fritz Kraemer, strategic advisor to the Chief of Staff of the US Army for over 30 years

Skepticism and pessimism aren't synonymous. Skeptism calls for pessimism when optimism is excessive. But it also calls for optimism when pssimism is excessive. -- Howard Marks, Oaktree Capital Management