Quotes

If you came to this page expecting to see the latest stock market prices, we hope you are not disappointed!  We trust that wisdom reflected in these famous and not so famous quotes will be more beneficial to your long-term financial picture than the moment by moment stock prices from Wall Street.

Planning

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”  - Benjamin Franklin

“A good plan is like a road map: it shows the final destination and usually the best way to get there.” -  H. Stanely Judd

“A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.” -  Geoge S. Patton

“Always have a plan, and believe in it. Nothing happens by accident.” - Chuck Knox

“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” - John F. Kennedy

“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” - Proverbs 15:22, NIV

“For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?” - Jesus of Nazareth (Luke 14:28, NASB)

 

Setting Goals

“If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else.” - Yogi Berra

“You must have long term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures.” - Charles C. Noble

“Begin with the end in mind.” - Stephen Covey

“A goal properly set is halfway reached.” - Zig Ziglar

“Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I’ll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I’ll give you a stock clerk.” - J.C. Penney

 

Predictions / Forecasts

“Pundits forecast not because they know, but because they are asked.” - John Kenneth Galbraith

“It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” - Yogi Berra

“We have two kinds of forecasters, those who don't know and those who don't know they don't know.” - John Kenneth Galbraith

“Impossible to see, the future is.” - Yoda, by George Lucas

 

Taking Action

“Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” - Will Rogers

“Learn from the past.  Prepare for the future.  Perform in the present.” - Gary Mack

“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” - Warren Buffett

“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.” - William Arthur Ward

 

Investing

“In the short run the stock market is a voting machine... (but) in the long run it is a weighing machine.” -  Benjamin Graham

 "Do you know what investing for the long run but listening to market news every day is like? It’s like a man walking up a big hill with a yo-yo and keeping his eyes fixed on the yo-yo instead of the hill." - Alan Abelson

 “Speculation is an effort, probably unsuccessful, to turn a little money into a lot. Investment is an effort, which should be successful, to prevent a lot of money from becoming a little.” - Fred Schwed Jr.

“The investor's chief problem -- even his worst enemy -- is likely to be himself.” - Benjamin Graham

 

Overconfidence / Certainty

“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” –Voltaire

“It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.” - John Maynard Keynes

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” - Anonymous

“There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.” - Robert Burns

“If it is true that we need a degree of certainty to get by, it is also true that too much of the stuff can be lethal.” - Terry Eagleton

Retirement

“Preparation for old age should begin not later than one's teens. A life which is empty of purpose until 65 will not suddenly become filled on retirement.” - Arthur E. Morgan

“Don't simply retire from something; have something to retire to.” - Harry Emerson Fosdick

“There's one thing I always wanted to do before I quit . . . . retire!” - Groucho Marx

"Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them." - Louis Armstrong

 

Taxes

“The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.” - Will Rogers

“The only difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.” - Mark Twain

“For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” – Winston Churchill

“I am proud to be paying taxes in the United States. The only thing is I could be just as proud for half of the money.” - Arthur Godfrey

“In 1790, the nation which had fought a revolution against taxation without representation discovered that some of its citizens weren’t much happier about taxation with representation.” – Lyndon B. Johnson

“The art of taxation consists of plucking the goose so as to obtain the most feathers with the least hissing.” - Jean-Baptiste Colbert

 

Other Wisdom

“Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people that they don't like.”  Will Rogers

“The farther back you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see”. - Winston Churchill

“Common sense ain't common.” - Will Rogers

“History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.” - Mark Twain

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.” - Groucho Marx