A Few Good Quotes

Here is some lighter fare for a Friday. The first quote is this article referencing itself. Unfortunately, it probably applies to some of my other articles (and some articles by other financial bloggers as well).

“When ideas fail, words come in very handy.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

This next quote from Warren Buffett explains more clearly than I ever have why most professional money managers don’t really try to beat the index.

“Most managers have very little incentive to make the intelligent-but-with-some-chance-of-looking-like-an-idiot decision. Their personal gain/loss ratio is all too obvious: if an unconventional decision works out well, they get a pat on the back and, if it works out poorly, they get a pink slip. (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.)”

The last bit makes me think of someone watching a video of hundreds of lemmings going over a cliff, pausing the video, and pointing and screaming “THAT ONE RIGHT THERE! WHAT AN IDIOT!”

And finally, we have one of my favourite investing-related quotes with a slight temporal challenge:

“Don't gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don't go up, don't buy it.” – Will Rogers