Bernard Baruch - "Dr. Facts"

Bernard Baruch was known as "Dr. Facts." Just out of college, he lost $8000 of his father's money, and later on, another $6000 in the stock market. Determined to learn from his mistakes, he studied the market intently, and in 1897 turned 100 shares of American Sugar Refining into $60,000. After some large gains and losses, in 1901, the year President McKinley was shot, he turned the market uncertainty into a short sale that netted him $700,000 in profits. In the great crash of 1929, Baruch earned over $615,000. His estate, at his death in 1965, was worth over $14 million, even after having given away over $20 million.

"When good news about the market hits the front page of the New York Times, sell. "

"The main purpose of the stock market is to make fools of as many men as possible. "

"I made my money by selling too soon. "

"Nobody ever lost money taking a profit. "

"There is something about inside information which seems to paralyse a man's reasoning powers. "

"If a speculator is correct half of the time, he is hitting a good average. Even being right 3 or 4 times out of 10 should yield a person a fortune if he has the sense to cut his losses quickly on the ventures where he is wrong. "

"If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. "

"If you get all the facts, your judgment can be right; if you don't get all the facts, it can't be right. "

"In the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves. "

"Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why."

"Most of the successful people I've known are the ones who do more listening than talking. "

"Never follow the crowd. "

"Never pay the slightest attention to what a company president ever says about his stock. "

"A speculator is a man who observes the future, and acts before it occurs. "

"Consider and reconsider the facts, and your opinions. Stubbornness as to opinions - cockiness -must be entirely eliminated."

"Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts. "

"Do not blame anybody for your mistakes and failures. "

"Don't try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. It can't be done except by liars. "

"During my eighty-seven years I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think. "

"Only as you do know yourself can your brain serve you as a sharp and efficient tool. Know your own failings, passions, and prejudices so you can separate them from what you see. "

"Two things are bad for the heart - running up stairs and running down people. "

"Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in private and public life have been the consequence of action without thought. "