Quotes About Strategy

continual dissipation of American forces and morale. She was "petrified" about the consequences for America of making politics subservient indefinitely to military strategy.

Bin Laden was eager to memorialize the 9/11 attacks with another spectacular one. He told his deputies that killing President Barack Obama was a high priority, but he also had General David Petraeus, the then-commander in Afghanistan, in his sights. Bin Laden told his team not to bother with plots against Vice President Joe Biden, whom he considered "totally unprepared" for the post of president.

Game theory says that the true source of uncertainty lies in the intentions of others.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, but don't put all your eggs in one basket.

The prevalence of surprise in the world of business is evidence that uncertainty is more likely to prevail than mathematical probability.

The Commanding General is well aware that the forecasts are no good. However, he needs them for planning purposes.

Winston Churchill once said, 'In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.

Before him, tribes would throw long spears at each other and wait. Like, ho hum, arrow arrow in the air, hey, want some coffee? Shaka said no way, José — well, maybe not José but the Zulu equivalent — short spears are better! Then you can go right up to your enemy's ugly face and wham! Stab! Arrrrgghh!

A technique that works repeatedly is to wait until the prevailing opinion about a certain industry is that things have gone from bad to worse, and then buy shares in the strongest companies in the group.

You have to keep your priorities straight, if you plan to do well in stocks.

The best way to handle a situation in which you love the company but not the current price is to make a small commitment and then increase it in the next sell-off.

Investing without research is like playing stud poker and never looking at the cards. For some reason the whole business

I'm always on the lookout for great companies in lousy industries. A great industry that's growing fast, such as computers or medical technology, attracts too much attention and too many competitors.

A successful stockpicker has the same relationship with a drop in the market as a Minnesotan has with freezing weather. You know it's coming, and you're ready to ride it out, and when your favorite stocks go down with the rest, you jump at the chance to buy more.

It's best to divide your money among three or four types of stock funds (growth, value, emerging growth, etc.) so you'll always have some money invested in the most profitable sector of the market.

When we say this, we're assuming you are a long-term investor who is determined to stick with stocks no matter what.

By putting your stocks into categories you'll have a better idea of what to expect from them.

Consider the size of a company if you expect it to profit from a specific product.

The lesson here is: don't spend a lot of time poring over the past performance charts. That's not to say you shouldn't pick a fund with a good long-term record. But it's better to stick with a steady and consistent performer than to move in and out of funds, trying to catch the waves. Another major issue is what happens to a

If you can't convince yourself "When I'm down 25 percent, I'm a buyer" and banish forever the fatal thought "When I'm down 25 percent, I'm a seller," then you'll never make a decent profit in stocks.

So while the smaller fast growers risk extinction, the larger fast growers risk a rapid devaluation when they begin to falter.

This is investing, where the smart money isn't so smart, and the dumb money isn't really as dumb as it thinks. Dumb money is only dumb when it listens to the smart money.

To make this spectacular showing, you only had to find one big winner out of eleven. The more right you are about any one stock, the more wrong you can be on all the others and still triumph as an investor.

To me, an investment is simply a gamble in which you've managed to tilt the odds in your favor.