“No, don’t! Don’t dig up the past! Dwell on the past and you’ll lose an eye.” But the proverb goes on to say: “Forget the past and you’ll lose both eyes.”
— Aleksander I. Solzhenitsyn from “The Gulag Archipelago “
Most folks are too busy with their jobs, their families, their hobbies and other interests to read even a small fraction of what they need to know to reach their financial goals. As a nation, we are largely financially illiterate.
— Alex Green
“Investors should purchase stock like they purchase groceries – not like they purchase perfume.” – Benjamin Graham
“You can’t pick cherries with your back to the tree.” – J.P. Morgan
“Investment success accrues not so much to the brilliant as to the disciplined.” – William J. Bernstein
Life might be a race against time but it is enriched when we rise above our instincts and stop the clock to process and understand what we are doing and why. A wise decision requires reflection, and reflection requires a pause.
— Frank Partnoy
People are motivated by both self-interest and a yearning desire to lead a morally meaningful life
— David Brooks
We think a king is free… in fact, terror hangs over him…
“One might think that the most powerful man has the most choices, but in reality he has the fewest. Too much depends on his every move. The tyrant’s choices are the narrowest of all. His life—the nation!—hangs in the balance. He can no longer drift or explore, join or flee. He cannot reinvent himself, because so many others depend on him—and he, in turn, must depend on so many others. He stops learning, because he is walled in by fortresses and palaces, by generals and ministers who rarely dare to tell him what he doesn’t wish to hear. Power gradually shuts the tyrant off from the world. Everything comes to him second or third hand. He is deceived daily. He becomes ignorant of his land, his people, even his own family. He exists, finally, only to preserve his wealth and power, to build his legacy. Survival becomes his one overriding passion. So he regulates his diet, tests his food for poison, exercises behind well-patrolled walls, trusts no one, and tries to control everything.
Lest you think this is an edge case in the history of power, know that it is in fact the oldest story in the world. There’s even an ancient myth about it: The Sword of Damocles. We think a king is free… in fact, terror hangs over him.”
The highest dividend money pays is the ability to control time…
— Morgan Housel (link)
“Being able to do what you want, when you want, where you want, with who you want and for as long as you want provides a lasting level of happiness that no amount of “fancy stuff” can ever offer.
The thrill of having fancy stuff wears off quickly. But a job with flexible hours and a short commute will never get old. Having enough savings to give you time and options during an emergency will never get old. Being able to retire when you want to will never get old.
Achieving independence is our ultimate goal in life. But independence isn’t an “all-or-nothing” — every dollar you save is like owning a slice of your future that might otherwise be managed by someone else, based on their priorities.”