Thomas Phelps on patience and investing

To make money in the stock market you must have the vision to see them, courage to buy them and the patience to hold them.  Patience is the rarest of the three.

~ Thomas W. Phelps, 100 to 1 in the Stock Market (1972)

Albert Einstein on imagining the future

Imagination is everything: It is the preview of life's coming attractions.

~ Albert Einstein

Peter Drucker on prediction

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

~ Peter Drucker

Ronald Stöferle et al. on intuition and investing

No amount of studies can make up for a lack of intution, including the study of the Austrian School. An artisan may gain a deeper understanding of his own work, gain self-confidence, and perhaps occasionally a good idea by the study of the history of art, but it can never replace talent and craftsmanship. Books as a medium stand in the great occidental tradition of theoria, but practical books about economic topics are as a rule of little value.

This is so because economy means change.  Entrepreneurial success means doing something different than has been done hitherto.  It is similar with investment success: it requires seeing things others do not see.  This ability to see is primarily a talent, secondly down to practice, and only thirdly accessible to rational conception.  Many banks prefer not to hire academics for their trading operations, as they think too much and do not have enough intuition.

~ Rahim Taghnizadegan, Ronald Stöferle, Mark Valek and Heinz Blasnik, Austrian School for Investors (2015), p. 71

Steve Jobs on vision

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.

You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

~ Steve Jobs

Jim Grant on the value of Austrian theory when peering into the future

What we do is look for extremes in markets: very undervalued or very overvalued.  Austrian theory has certainly given us an edge.  When you have a theory to work from, you avoid the problem that comes with stumbling around in the dark over chairs and night stands.  At least you can begin to visualize in the dark, which is where we all work.  The future is always unlit.  But with a body of theory, you can anticipate where the structures might lie.  It allows you to step out of the way every once in a while.

~ Jim Grant, "The Trouble with Prosperity: An Interview with James Grant," Austrian Economics Newsletter, Winter 1996

(Cited by Austrian School for Investors, p. 75.)

Leonardo da Vinci on vision

There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see.

~ Leonardo da Vinci

Ronald Reagan on vision

There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits on the human capacity for intelligence, imagination and wonder.

~ Ronald Reagan, 40th president