George Kennan on NATO expansion after the Soviet Union collapse

I think it is the beginning of a new cold war.  I think the Russians will react adversely and it will affect their policies.  I think it was a tragic mistake.  There was no reason for this whatsoever.  No one was threatening anybody else.  This expansion would have the Founding Fathers rolling in their graves.  We have signed up to defend a whole series of countries even though we have neither the resources nor the intention to do so in any serious way.

~ George Kennan, historian who advocated a policy of Soviet containment during the Cold War, May 2, 1998

Warren Buffett: "The stock market is a no-called-strike game"

The stock market is a no-called-strike game.  You don't have to swing at everything -- you can wait for your pitch.  The problem when you're a money manager is that your fans keep yelling, "Swing, you bum!"

~ Warren Buffett, 1999 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, as quoted in The Tao of Warren Buffett by Mary Buffett and David Clark

MLB 2021 Home Run Derby

Warren Buffett on bubbles

But a pin lies in wait for every bubble.  And when the two eventually meet, a new wave of investors learns some very old lessons: First, many in Wall Street -- a community in which quality control is not prized -- will sell investors anything they will buy.  Second, speculation is most dangerous when it looks easiest.

~ Warren Buffett, 2000 Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter

Warren Buffett on stock forecasters

We've long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune tellers look good.  Even now, Charlie and I continue to believe that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up in a safe place, away from children and also from grown-ups who behave in the market like children.

~ Warren Buffett, 1992 Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter

Charlie Munger on success and failure

It's a good habit to trumpet your failures and be quiet about your successes.

~ Charlie Munger

Elon Musk on ESG

I am increasingly convinced that ESG is the Devil Incarnate.

~ Elon Musk, tweet, April 3, 2022

Jeff Deist on college education

Many students leave university with disastrously stupid worldviews - hostile to property, markets, free speech, family, and even civilization itself.  The whole cottage industry of "indentity  studies" is useless and destructive, by design.  These phony courses leave kids dispirited, depressed about the future, and ready to throw away centuries of received wisdom for a progressive blank slate.  Unwitting students graduate meaner, dumber, and older - with de facto degrees in narcissism ("I feel") and nihilism ("I hate").  Talk about opportunity cost!  Paraphrasing Mises, universities are gardens of socialism rather than exciting places for knowledge, ideas, and development.

~ Jeff Deist, Mises Institute fund raising letter, April 20, 2022