“The average result has to be the average result. By definition, everybody can’t beat the market. As I always say, the iron rule of life is that only 20% of the people can be in the top fifth. That’s just the way it is.”

It’s not greed that drives the world, but envy.

It never ceases to amaze me to see how much territory can be grasped if one merely masters and consistently uses all the obvious and easily learned principles.

Step by step you get ahead, but rarely in fast spurts.

Someone will always be getting richer faster than you. This is not a tragedy.

Whenever you think something or some person is ruining your life, it’s you. A victimization mentality is so debilitating.

If you want to understand science, you have to understand math. In business, if you’re enumerate, you’re going to be a klutz. The good thing about business is that you don’t have to know any higher math.

It’s waiting that helps you as an investor, and a lot of people just can’t stand to wait. If you didn’t get the deferred-gratification gene, you’ve got to work very hard to overcome that.

The way to win is to work, work, work, work and hope to have a few insights And you’re probably not going to be smart enough to find thousands in a lifetime. And when you get a few, you really load up. It’s just that simple.

It’s been my experience in life if you just keep thinking and reading, you don’t have to work.

Most people are too fretful, they worry to much. Success means being very patient, but aggressive when it’s time.

A lot of our respected financial institutions are just casinos in drag.

Knowing what you don’t know is more useful than being brilliant.

Intelligent people make decisions based on opportunity costs.

Opportunity comes to the prepared mind.

Great investing requires a lot of delayed gratification.

The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting.

Perseverance – a lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves an inglorious success.

Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It is a way of entering into the quiet that is already there – buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day.

You have to do stuff that average people don’t understand because those are the only good things.

Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity.

You don’t have to have perfect wisdom to get very rich – just a bit better than average over a long period of time.

Discipline helps you finish a job, and finishing is what separates excellent work from average work.

A jostling scrum of office buildings so mediocre that the only way you ever remember them is by the frustration they induce – like a basketball team standing shoulder to shoulder between you and the Mona Lisa.

My mom was a teacher – I have the greatest respect for the profession – we need great teachers – not poor or mediocre ones.