Year-End Words of Wisdom

It’s been a pleasure, dear reader, delivering business news to you this year. In gratitude, here are the best quotes from the Stock Trader’s Almanac by Jeffrey and Yale Hirsch.

"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." –George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist

"In the short term, the stock market behaves like a voting machine, but in the long term it acts like a weighing machine." – Benjamin Graham, economist

"It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.– W. Somerset Maugham, author

"Love your enemies, for they tell you your faults." – Benjamin Franklin, American statesman

"There are two kinds of people who lose money: those who know nothing and those who know everything." – Henry Kaufman, economist

"An economist is someone who sees something happen, and then wonders if it would work in theory." – President Ronald Reagan

"Let us have the courage to stop borrowing to meet the continuing deficits. Stop the deficits."– President Franklin D. Roosevelt

"We can guarantee cash benefits as far out and at whatever size you like, but we cannot guarantee their purchasing power." – Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman

"A weakened White House creates uncertainty on Wall Street." – Robert D. Hormats, statesman, businessman

"Keep me away from wisdom which does not make me cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children." – Kahlil Gibran, poet, writer

"When you are one step ahead of the crowd, you are genius. When you’re two steps ahead,  you’re a crackpot." – Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

"Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent." – C. G. Jung, psychiatrist

"Technology has no respect for traditions." – Peter C. Lee, businessman

"The political problem of mankind is to combine three things: economic efficiency, social justice, and individual liberty." – John Maynard Keynes, economist

"If banking institutions are protected by the taxpayer and they are given free rein to speculate, I may not live long enough to see the crisis, but my soul is going to come back and haunt you." –Paul A. Volcker, former Federal Reserve chairman

"I would like to say to Milton Friedman: regarding the Great Depression, you’re right, we did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t do it again." – Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman

"Wall Street’s graveyards are filled with men who were right too soon." – William Hamilton, business journalist

"History shows that once the United States fully recognizes an economic problem and thereby places all its efforts on solving it, the problem is about to be solved by natural forces." – James L. Fraser, Contrary Investor

"It’s a lot of fun finding a country nobody knows about. The only thing better is finding a country everybody’s bullish on and shorting it." – Jim Rogers, financier

"Show me a good phone receptionist and I’ll show you a good company." – Harvey Mackay, author, “Pushing the Envelope”

"In the stock market, those who expect history to repeat itself are doomed for failure." – Yale Hirsch, creator, Stock Trader’s Almanac

"The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable." – John Kenneth Galbraith, economist

"We are not believers that the government is bigger than the business cycle." – David Rosenberg, economist

"If there’s anything duller than being on a board in Corporate America, I haven’t found it." – H. Ross Perot, businessman, presidential candidate

"It’s not that I am so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer." – Albert Einstein

"The first human that hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization." – Sigmund Freud

"If you spend more than 14 minutes a year worrying about the market, you’ve wasted 12 minutes." – Peter Lynch, investing guru

"In this game, the market has to keep pitching, but you don’t have to swing. You can stand there with the bat on your shoulder for six months until you get a fat pitch." – Warren Buffett, investing guru

"If you have a point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever: Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack." – Winston Churchill, British prime minister

"I am not nearly so concerned about the return on my capital as I am the return of my capital." –Will Rogers, humorist

"The four most expensive words in the English Language: ‘This time it’s different.’"– Sir John Templeton

"All there is to investing is picking good stocks at good times, and staying with them as long as they remain good companies." – Warren Buffett, investing guru

"Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell." – Frank Borman, CEO, Eastern Airlines

"In order to be a great writer (or investor) a person must have a built-in shockproof of crap detector." – Ernest Hemingway, author

"Inflation is the modern way governments default on their debt." – Mike Epstein, MIT/Sloan Lab for Financial Engineering

"Six words that spell business success: create concept, communicate concept, sustain momentum." – Yale Hirsch, creator of Stock Trader’s Almanac

"You know you are right when the other side starts to shout." – I.A. O’Shaughnessy, American oilman

"When a country lives on borrowed time, borrowed money, and borrowed energy, it is begging the markets to discipline it in their own time. Usually the markets do it in an orderly way – except when they don’t." – Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times

"A weak currency is a sign of a weak economy, and a weak economy leads to a weak nation." – H. Ross Perot, presidential candidate, businessman

"If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything." – Darrell Huff, business author

"I’d be a bum on the street with a tin cup, if the markets were always efficient." – Warren Buffett, investing guru

"The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent." – John Maynard Keynes, economist

"Faith lifts the staggering soul on one side, hope supports it on the other. Experience says it must be, and love says, let it be." — Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton