56 Quotes by William J. Bernstein

The advent of the written word around 3300 BC lifted history's curtain and revealed an already well-established pattern of long-distance trade, not only in luxury and strategic goods, but in bulk staples such as grain and timber as well.

Great intelligence and good luck are not required. The essential characteristics of the successful investor are the discipline and stamina to, in the words of John Bogle, “stay the course.”Investing is not a destination. It is an ongoing journey through its four continents—theory, history, psychology, and business.

Within a few decades after the conquests of Cortés and Pizarro, the cattle population of Spanish America doubled as rapidly as every fifteen months. From Mexico to the pampas of Argentina, the vast open spaces of the New World swarmed black with livestock. One French observer in Mexico wrote in wonderment at the "great, level plains, stretching endlessly and everywhere covered with an infinite number of cattle.

The reason that 'guru' is such a popular word is because 'charlatan' is so hard to spell.

The definition of investment is the deferring ofpresent consumption for future consumption. So, you dohave to be willing to defer. And there are a couple of tricks that you can use to save money. One of them is simply to pay yourself first.

The purpose of investing is not to simply optimise returns and make yourself rich. The purpose is not to die poor.

Investment success accrues not so much to the brilliant as to the disciplined.

There are two kinds of investors, be thay large or small: those who don’t know where the market is headed, and those who don’t know that they don’t know.

Wall Street is littered with the bones of those who knew just what to do, but could not bring themselves to do it.