Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.I
shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
A Psalm of Life
Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solenm main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solenm main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Investment Quotes
“Calling someone who trades actively in the market an investor is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a romantic”
WARREN BUFFETT
“In the short run the market is a voting machine. In the long run it is a weighing machine.”
BENJAMIN GRAHAM
“Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections or trying to anticipate corrections than has been lost in corrections themselves.”
PETER LYNCH
“If you are not willing to own a stock for 10 years, do not even think about owning it for 10 minutes”
WARREN BUFFETT
“Great companies bought at great prices should be like great friends – you do not want to drop them precipitously.”
SHELBY M.C. DAVIS
Quotes from Warren Buffet
A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.
I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted it for a minute.
I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here.
I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.
I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.
I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.
If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.
If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.
It's better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you'll drift in that direction.
It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.
Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.
Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.
Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.
Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.
Our favorite holding period is forever.
Our favourite holding period is forever.
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.
Risk is a part of God's game, alike for men and nations.
Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.
Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.
The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.
The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.
The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth.
The only time to buy these is on a day with no "y" in it.
The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves-and the better the teacher, the better the student body.
There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.
Value is what you get.
We believe that according the name 'investors' to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a 'romantic.'
We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.
We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.
When a management team with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.
When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.
Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful".
Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.
You do things when the opportunities come along. I've had periods in my life when I've had a bundle of ideas come along, and I've had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I'll do something. If not, I won't do a damn thing.
You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.
Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business.
Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.
I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted it for a minute.
I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here.
I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.
I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.
I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.
If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.
If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.
It's better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you'll drift in that direction.
It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.
Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.
Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.
Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.
Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.
Our favorite holding period is forever.
Our favourite holding period is forever.
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.
Risk is a part of God's game, alike for men and nations.
Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.
Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.
The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.
The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.
The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth.
The only time to buy these is on a day with no "y" in it.
The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves-and the better the teacher, the better the student body.
There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.
Value is what you get.
We believe that according the name 'investors' to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a 'romantic.'
We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.
We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.
When a management team with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.
When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.
Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful".
Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.
You do things when the opportunities come along. I've had periods in my life when I've had a bundle of ideas come along, and I've had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I'll do something. If not, I won't do a damn thing.
You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.
Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
C.S. Lewis Quotes
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.
If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.
Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.
If you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?
If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere.
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
Christianity simply does not make sense until you have faced the sort of facts I have been describing. Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need forgiveness
A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours.
If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.
Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable.
If you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?
If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere.
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
Christianity simply does not make sense until you have faced the sort of facts I have been describing. Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness. It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need forgiveness
A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.
Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Quotes from George Orwell
“We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
“Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”
“An autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.”
“All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.”
“"Doublethink" means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them”
“Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it”
“Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper”
“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”
“Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”
“An autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.”
“All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.”
“"Doublethink" means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them”
“Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it”
“Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper”
“All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.”
Quotes from Jim Rogers
Bottoms in the investment world don't end with four-year lows; they end with 10- or 15-year lows.
Commodities tend to zig when the equity markets zag.
Do not buy the hype from Wall St. and the press that stocks always go up. There are long periods when stocks do nothing and other investments are better.
Get inside information from the president and you will probably lose half your money. If you get it from the chairman of the board, you will lose all of your money.
Historically, there has been a bull market in commodities every 20 or 30 years.
I think this is also a great time to invest in private equity, helping companies grow from the ground up.
If the current birth rate, which is the lowest in the major developed countries, continues, there will be no Japanese. Who will pay the enormous debt?
Index investing outperforms active management year after year.
Most of my thoughts, you couldn't print.
Right now I own shares of companies in 28 countries.
The price of a commodity will never go to zero. When you invest in commodities futures, you're not buying a piece of paper that says you own an intangible piece of company that can go bankrupt.
Tough times helped many commodities producers become lean and mean through consolidation, mergers and cost-cutting. All that excess supply has been sopped up.
You can no longer buy commodities at Merrill Lynch. My guess is many analysts and even executives are too young to know how profitable a hot commodities market can be. They will soon.
Commodities tend to zig when the equity markets zag.
Do not buy the hype from Wall St. and the press that stocks always go up. There are long periods when stocks do nothing and other investments are better.
Get inside information from the president and you will probably lose half your money. If you get it from the chairman of the board, you will lose all of your money.
Historically, there has been a bull market in commodities every 20 or 30 years.
I think this is also a great time to invest in private equity, helping companies grow from the ground up.
If the current birth rate, which is the lowest in the major developed countries, continues, there will be no Japanese. Who will pay the enormous debt?
Index investing outperforms active management year after year.
Most of my thoughts, you couldn't print.
Right now I own shares of companies in 28 countries.
The price of a commodity will never go to zero. When you invest in commodities futures, you're not buying a piece of paper that says you own an intangible piece of company that can go bankrupt.
Tough times helped many commodities producers become lean and mean through consolidation, mergers and cost-cutting. All that excess supply has been sopped up.
You can no longer buy commodities at Merrill Lynch. My guess is many analysts and even executives are too young to know how profitable a hot commodities market can be. They will soon.
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