Well the open-outcry auction is just made to turn the brain into mush: you've got social proof, the other guy is bidding, you get reciprocation tendency, you get deprival super-reaction syndrome, the thing is going away... I mean it just absolutely is designed to manipulate people into idiotic behavior.

The perfect example of Darwinism is what technology has done to businesses.

So, economics should emulate physics' basic ethos, but its search for precision in physics-like formulas is almost always wrong in economics.

Remember that reputation and integrity are your most valuable assets -- and can be lost in a heartbeat.

Investing is where you find a few great companies and then sit on your ass.

We're the tortoise that has outrun the hare because it chose the easy predictions.

Intense interest in any subject is indispensable if you're really going to excel in it.

The iron rule of nature is: you get what you reward for.

If you want ants to come, you put sugar on the floor.

In the LBO field there is a buried covariance with marketable equities, toward disaster in generally bad business conditions, and competition is now extremely intense.

Well in the history of the See's Candy Company they always say, I never did it before, and I'm never going to do it again. And we cashier them. It would be evil not to, because terrible behavior spreads.

It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.

There must be some wisdom in the folk saying: Its the strong swimmers who drown.

Wrigley is a great business, but that doesn't solve the problem. Buying great businesses at advantageous prices is very tough.

I believe that we are at or near the apex of a great civilization... In 50-100 years, if we're a poor third to some countries in Asia, I wouldn't be surprised. If I had to bet, the part of the world that will do best will be Asia.

The name of the game is continuing to learn. Even if you're very well trained and have some natural aptitude, you still need to keep learning.

Common stock investors can make money by predicting the outcomes of practice evolution. You can't derive this by fundamental analysis -- you must think biologically.

Missing out on some opportunity never bothers us. What's wrong with someone getting a little richer than you? It's crazy to worry about this.

If you're going to live a long time, you have to keep learning. What you formerly knew is not enough. If you don't adapt, you're like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest.

We're emphasizing the knowable by predicting how certain people and companies will swim against the current. We're not predicting the fluctuation in the current.

A lot of success in life and business comes from knowing what you want to avoid: early death, a bad marriage, etc.