Bernie Pruss

On simplicity

"Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler."

— Albert Einstein

On dreams and vision

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

"If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity… if you seek liberalization… tear down this wall!"

— Ronald Reagan, Brandenburg Gate, 1987

"No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris… no known motor can run at the requisite speed for four days without stopping."

— Orville Wright

A reminder that even the people who do the impossible sometimes can't see what's coming next.

"The same power that burns in the stars and nebulae burns equally in us. Our being is a miracle, equal with the creation of the universe."

— Terrence Malick

On the mind

"Mind is the Master power that molds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills:
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass."

— James Allen, As a Man Thinketh, 1903

On taking action

"Never ask permission to solve a problem from someone who can profit from keeping you in the problem."

— Anonymous

"If we take on this challenge of self reinvention, we will find ourselves walking down an unfamiliar road. Rather than being led by what has been important to us in the past, we will find ourselves 'being' what we are committed to, what we are standing for, what our vision is."

— Steve Zaffron & Dave Logan, The Three Laws of Performance

On markets and randomness

"I wouldn't invest outside the U.S. If someone wants to invest 20 percent or less of their portfolio outside the U.S., that's fine. I wouldn't do it, but if you want to, that's fine."

— John Bogle

"It is my contention that active management does not make sense theoretically and isn't justified empirically. Other than that, it's OK. But it's easy to understand the allure, the seductive power of active management. After all, it's exciting, fun to dip and dart, pick stocks and time markets, to get paid high fees for this, and to do it all with someone else's money."

— Rex Sinquefield

"Randomness is hard to accept… When events sometimes do come in clusters and streaks, people look for explanations and patterns."

— Burton Malkiel, A Random Walk Down Wall Street

"A blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a newspaper's financial pages could select a portfolio that would do just as well as one carefully selected by experts."

— Burton Malkiel, A Random Walk Down Wall Street