“Blessed is the man who devotes his life to something bigger than himself and finds himself surrounded by friends who share his passion.”

“Frankly speaking, making money isn't hard in itself... What's real hard is to earn it doing something worth devoting one's life to”

“Until a person finds something to die for, he or she has nothing to live for.”

“The wealth of America isn’t an inventory of goods; it’s an organic,living entity, a fragile, pulsing fabric of ideas, expectations, loyalties,moral commitments, visions, and people. To slice it up like an applepie and redistribute it would destroy it just as surely as trying to shareStephen Hawking’s intellect by sharing slices of his brain would surelykill him.”

“This nation was founded on the principle of wealth creation. Asa young Henry Clay said in the House of Representatives in 1812,“It [wealth creation] is a passion as unconquerable as any with whichnature has endowed us. You may attempt to regulate—you cannotdestroy it.” That is supposed to be the federal government’s primary objective.It is supposed to promote the creation of an environment conduciveto the creation of wealth—not job creation, not bailouts, not subsidies,not expansion of the federal bureaucracy, and not providing lifetimesupport to those who choose not to take advantage of the innumerableopportunities that exist in this nation for them to create a better,more productive life for themselves.”

“The only thing that is or should be equal in the creation of wealthis the opportunity to participate. Everything else is naturally and rightfullydependent on personal and often exclusively inherent advantagesand disadvantages. The imagined outcomes and side benefits areimpossible to guarantee. The shared human experience should havetaught us, by any objective standard, that making a mirage your focuswill undermine your chances of finding gold.”

“I do not believe in the power of brand names or in emulatingany of the brand name investors out there. It is a fact that all—ifnot at least most—of the biggest names in American finance andindustry out there today have proven after the 2008 crisis to be someof the most incompetent people there are. Starting with the untouchableGoldman Sachs, who was bailed out by over $5 billion fromWarren Buffett, to AIG and Citibank, who were bailed out by thehundreds of billions of dollars from the Troubled Asset Relief Program(TARP), having a name and a history does not make you the brightestand the best. All it takes is one nincompoop with a huge ego or aboard of directors who think they are smarter than everyone else todestroy what has taken generations to build.”