Benjamin Quotes

We seek to find peace of mind in the word, the formula, the ritual. The hope is illusion.

Jefferson thought schools would produce free men: we prove him right by putting dropouts in jail.

If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone.

Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.

Pen, wax and parchment govern the world.

Hear no ill of a friend, nor speak any of an enemy.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

What is the use of a new-born child ?

The art of acting consists in keeping people from coughing.

Allegories are, in the realm of thought, what ruins are in the realm of things.

I am convinced that knowledge is power - to overcome the past, to change our own situations, to fight new obstacles, to make better decisions.

There can be economy only where there is efficiency.

The function of the margin of safety is, in essence, that of rendering unnecessary an accurate estimate of the future.

Consequences cannot alter statutes, but may help to fix their meaning.

One of the hardest things in this world is to admit you are wrong. And nothing is more helpful in resolving a situation than its frank admission.

I'm a proud member of the rabble.

Serving God is doing good to man, but praying is thought an easier service and therefore more generally chosen.

Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families.

Take Courage, Mortal; Death can't banish thee out of the Universe.

It is absurd to think that the general public can ever make money out of market forecasts.

Might the peasant expect the Almighty to stay the thunder storm, which clears the air of a nation from pestilence, lest the lightning bold should in its flash kill his cow?

A consistent and heart-filled effort to completion is the foundation of excellent work.

Books and harlots have their quarrels in public.

Nothing's more attractive than a heavy praying woman.

I'm a thinker; I think too much. So for me to freestyle rap, it's like I'm thinking three, four time steps ahead, and I hate it.

I don't mind opinions, because you like something or you don't like something, but to say things about your personal life? I'm like, "Man, let me quit reading this. 'Cause I'll stab everybody."

The moment that justice must be paid for by the victim of injustice it becomes itself injustice.

Sloth and Silence are a Fool's Virtues

The height of foolishness is to discard an opportunity without full investigation

Obvious prospects for physical growth in a business do not translate into obvious profits for investors.

By withholding the knowledge of [the Scriptures] from children, we deprive ourselves of the best means of awakening moral sensibility in their minds.

God works wonders now and then; Behold a lawyer, an honest man.

Australia is about as far away as you can get. I like that.

Mr. Market's job is to provide you with prices; your job is to decide whether it is to your advantage to act on them. You no not have to trade with hime just because he constantly begs you to.

The experience of our generation: that capitalism will not die a natural death.

In the financial markets, hindsight is forever 20/20, but foresight is legally blind. And thus, for most investors, market timing is a practical and emotional impossibility.

All my successes have been built on my failures.

Prospecting - Find the man with the problem.

No statement is more true and better applicable to Wall Street than the famous warning of Santayana: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it".

I'm from a middle class family but my father squandered all the money, so I didn't really run around with rich people. I was very judgmental towards a lot of them.

This, then, is the Anarchistic definition of government: the subjection of the non-invasive individual to an external will.

The right of the majority is absolute.

Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.

Sourness and bitterness come from the interfering and unappreciative mind. Life itself, when understood and utilized for what it is, is sweet. That is the message of The Vinegar Tasters.

Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memories.

The main problem with this great obsession for saving time is very simple: you can't save time. You can only spend it. But you can spend it wisely or foolishly.

Art for art's sake, with no purpose, for any purpose perverts art. But art achieves a purpose which is not its own. (1804)

Most middle-class whites have no idea what it feels like to be subjected to police who are routinely suspicious, rude, belligerent, and brutal.

The Anarchists are simply unterrified Jeffersonian Democrats. They believe that 'the best government is that which governs least,' and that which governs least is no government at all.