It is a paradox of our time that the path to radical progress begins with moderation. Extreme optimism and fatalistic pessimism may seem to be stark opposites, but they both end in apathy. If things were sure to improve or bound to collapse, then our actions would not matter one way or the other.
I have found that the days that I see now as wasted days of my life were those when I didn’t take an acceptable risk that I could have conceivably taken, when I didn’t ask myself if there was a new and different way to do what I was doing, when I didn’t set my sights as high as I possibly could have.
I don’t know anyone who learned to be a great investor with great rapidity. Warren has gotten to be one hell of a lot better investor over the period I’ve known him, as have I. So the game is to keep learning. You have to like the learning process.
There is a proper dignity and proportion to be observed in the performance of every act of life.
