Quotes from John Kay

Three simple rules - pay less, diversify more and be contrarian - will serve almost everyone well.

We incline to see history through the lives of great men. That inclination blinds us to the real complexity …

To win the lottery once may be evidence of luck or skill; to win it repeatedly is evidence of skill.

the problem, and our understanding of it, changes as we tackle it.

An asset is worth what someone is willing to pay for it; and the value of an asset is the cash it will generate over its life.

The use of capital markets by large companies today is mainly driven by tax and regulatory arbitrage, and undertaken by corporate treasurers with other people's money. Financing

Value investing was once the purchase of tangible assets at levels below their market value. Value investing today is buying sustainable competitive advantages at a good price.

Figure 1: The incidence of banking crises Source: Own calculations, based on the reported numbers of major bank failures in OECD economies, from Reinhart and Rogoff (2010)

The criteria that determine artistic success are ultimately determined by artists, not critics, and great art itself changes what these criteria are.

What was true was what was believed, and what was believed was true. And when the bubbles burst, what had once been believed and was therefore true was no longer believed and therefore no longer true. The

Why should I care about posterity? What has posterity ever done for me?           attributed to GROUCHO MARX, but also credited to various eighteenth-century English figures

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. —1 Corinthians 13:12

Effective decision makers are distinguished not so much by the superior extent of their knowledge as by their being aware of its limitations.

If we sometimes recast problems before we begin, more often we revise our specification in the process of actually tackling them.

People who applaud traders for providing liquidity to markets are often saying little more than that trading facilitates trading

Too big to fail' takes responsibility for the supervision of credit risks away from market participants and places it more or less exclusively in the hands of regulators: a duty that in this instance (and many others) they were not capable of discharging.

Guide the people by law, subdue them by punishment; they may shun crime, but will be void of shame. Guide them by example, subdue them by courtesy; they will learn shame, and come to be good.           CONFUCIUS

We don't consider any man successful until he has died well.

I am not saying that personal development is more important than winning; on the contrary, I am saying that enjoying the journey of self-discovery, by removing some of the pressure and angst associated with winning at all costs, is one way of helping you to win more often.

in his farewell address, Greenspan did warn that 'History has not dealt kindly with the aftermath of protracted periods of low risk premiums'.17 In that, he was certainly correct.

The use of leverage can promote efficiency by enabling risk to be held and managed more efficiently. But the use of leverage provides opportunities for tailgaters and gamblers with other people's money, and creates many opportunities to fall victim to the winner's curse.

Richard Rumelt's Good Strategy/Bad Strategy

But it is a common mistake to emphasise what you can measure at the expense of more important things that you can't. It is generally better to be approximately right than precisely wrong.