All Quotes
Asset allocation is a fancy word for diversification. “Let every man divide his money into three parts, and invest a third in land, a third in business, and a third let him keep by him in reserve.” So it is written in the Talmud, a record of debates among rabbis about Jewish law dating as early as 220 C.E. In investment circles, this quote is well known. It is an interesting reference to a properly diversified portfolio, dating back almost two millennia.
Anonymous Writer
By day we write about “Six Funds to Buy NOW!” . . . By night, we invest in sensible index funds. Unfortunately, pro-index fund stories don’t sell magazines.
Anonymous Writer, Fortune Magazine, April 26, 1999
Unless you’ve just spent the last decade looking for Elvis, you know that indexing most asset classes will beat most active managers. From time to time a majority of active managers in a given asset class will beat indexing, but this usually doesn’t last very long.
William Bernstein
The best way to own common stocks is through an index fund.
Warren Buffett
So who still believes markets don’t work? Apparently it is only the North Koreans, the Cubans, and the active managers.
Rex Sinquefield, Active vs. Passive Management, October 1995
If active managers win, it has to be at the expense of other active managers. And when you add them all up, the returns of active managers have to be literally zero, before costs. Then after costs, it’s a big negative sign.
Eugene Fama
All the time and effort that people devote to picking the right fund, the hot hand, the great manager, have in most cases led to no advantage.
Peter Lynch
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.
Upton Sinclair
The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit.
Milton Friedman
Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.
Albert Einstein
The important thing about an investment philosophy is that you have one you can stick with.
David Booth
Everybody has some information. The function of the markets is to aggregate that information, evaluate it, and get it incorporated into prices.
Merton Miller
Pundits forecast not because they know, but because they are asked.
John Kenneth Galbraith
The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones.
John Maynard Keynes
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
Everybody has some information. The function of the markets is to aggregate that information, evaluate it, and get it incorporated into prices.
Merton Miller
I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful