“The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does.” – Napoleon Hill
“…the evidence leaves little doubt that there is a sharp dissonance between standard setters’ and CFOs’ views on the proper determination of earnings.” – Earnings Quality: Evidence from the Field (Dichev, Graham, Harvey, Rajgopal)
“Wealth, like happiness, is never attained when sought after directly. It comes as a by-product of providing a useful service.” – Henry Ford
“The desire to undo the past is understandable but futile, and blinds one to the opportunities of the present.” – David R. Hawkins
“In general, it may be said that little if any weight should be given to the figures at which intangible assets appear on the balance sheet. Such intangibles may have a very large value indeed, but it is the income account and not the balance sheet that offers the clue to this value. In other words, it is the earning power of these intangibles, rather than their balance sheet valuation, that really counts.” – Ben Graham, The Interpretation of Financial Statements, 1937
“Don’t wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them.” – Orison Swett Marden
“…observe that GAAP seems to be rules‐based and theoretically inconsistent.” – Timothy B. Forsyth and Michael T. Dugan, Inconsistencies in U.S. GAAP: Accounting for Executory Contracts
“If you don’t have a unique product to market, you have no chance of survival.” – Andrea Illy
“About three years out of every thirteen or so, the stock market moves upward based on earnings moving upward, with no sense nor care for valuation levels. Those three years always precede the biggest market disasters.” – Joel Litman
“While CFOs caution that earnings management is difficult to unravel from the outside, they suggest a number of red flags that point to potential misrepresentation. The three most common flags are persistent deviations between earnings and the underlying cash flows, deviations from industry and other peer experience, and large and unexplained accruals and changes in accruals.” – Earnings Quality: Evidence from the Field (Dichev, Graham, Harvey, Rajgopal)
“A human being is like a seed. Either you can keep it as it is, or you can make it grow into a wonderful tree with flowers and fruits.” – Sadhguru
“Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it, it’s true. If you hire somebody without integrity, you really want them to be dumb and lazy.” – Warren Buffett
“In theory, a company should not keep any more cash on hand than is required for the transaction of its usual business and the possible needs that may suddenly arise. But for some years past, there has been a widespread tendency towards holding more cash than the business seems to need.” – Ben Graham, The Interpretation of Financial Statements, 1937
“Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.” – Ayn Rand
“While formulas such as the classic ‘net working capital’ test are necessary to support an investment analysis, value investing is not a paint-by-numbers exercise. Skepticism and judgment are always required.” – Seth Klarman (The Baupost Group)
“As-reported earnings bare little to no resemblance to the actual financial performance of the firm. Those who think otherwise have not really studied the financials nor the calculation of earnings as it is reported today.” – Joel Litman
“The true investor embraces volatility.” – Warren Buffett
“Error occurs when we cling to the belief that I am ‘that.’ Truth is unveiled when we see that one has ‘that’ or does ‘that,’ instead of is ‘that.’” – David R. Hawkins
“By holding expensive securities with low prospective returns, people choose to risk actual loss. We prefer the risk of lost opportunity to that of lost capital, and agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment espoused by respected value investor, when he said, ‘I would rather lose half our shareholders…than lose half our shareholder’s money…'” – Jean-Marie Eveillard
“Overall, CFOs have come to view financial reporting largely as a compliance activity rather than as a vehicle of innovation designed to inform stakeholders and lower the cost of capital.” – Earnings Quality: Evidence from the Field (Dichev, Graham, Harvey, Rajgopal)