Peter L. Bernstein famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

The revolutionary idea that defines the boundary between modern times and the past is the mastery of risk: the notion that the future is more than a whim of the gods and that men and women are not passive before nature.
-- Peter L. Bernstein

#Math #Past #Men
The word 'risk' derives from the early Italian risicare, which means 'to dare'. In this sense, risk is a choice rather than a fate. The actions we dare to take, which depend on how free we are to make choices, are what the story of risk is all about. And that story helps define what it means to be a human being.
-- Peter L. Bernstein

#Mean #Fate #Italian
The prospect of getting rich is highly motivating, and few people get rich without taking a gamble.
-- Peter L. Bernstein

#People #Rich #Get Rich
What if I am wrong? Any rational investment plan has to start with that question.
-- Peter L. Bernstein

#What If #Investment #Rational
Gambling has held human beings in thrall for millennia. It has been engaged in everywhere, from the dregs of society to the most respectable circles.
-- Peter L. Bernstein

#Circles #Gambling #Dregs
The essence of risk management lies in maximizing the areas where we have some control over the outcome while minimizing the areas where we have absolutely no control over the outcome.
-- Peter L. Bernstein

#Lying #Essence #Risk
The Gods are unkind and deny us knowledge of what the future holds
-- Peter L. Bernstein

#Ignorance #Economics #Deny
As the worldly philosophers of the past affirmed, the goal of economics is to improve the way society functions. In The New Financial Order, Robert Shiller joins this proud tradition by directing his brilliant economic skills toward the creation of financial institutions designed to reduce the risks an unknown future visits on most members of our society and others. Shiller's imaginative and compelling analysis will appeal to all readers who share his passion for initiating not only a richer, but a better, century.
-- Peter L. Bernstein

#Passion #Past #Order

Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity I do not understand it myself any more.
"The most powerful single idea in mathematics is the notion of a variable."
The science of pure mathematics, in its modern developments, may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit.
Any city may have one period of magnificence, like Boston or New Orleans or San Francisco, but it takes a real one to keep renewing itself until the past is perennially forgotten.
In the past, I used to counter any such notions by asking myself: 'Would you really want President Hattersley?' I now find that possibility rather cheers me up. With his chubby, Dickensian features and his knowledge of T.H. Green and other harmless leftish political classics, Hattersley might not be such a bad thing after all.
If you don't have a vision for the future, then your future is threatened to be a repeat of the past.
The past actually happened. History is what someone took the time to write down.
The sanctified body is one whose hands are clean. The stain of dishonesty is not on them, the withering blight of ill-gotten gain has not blistered them, the mark of violence is not found upon them. They have been separated from every occupation that could displease God or injure a fellow-man.
Ambition often puts Men upon doing the meanest offices; so climbing is performed in the same position with creeping.
When I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say, `Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart away; Give pearls away and rubies But keep your fancy free.' But I was one-and-twenty No use to talk to me. When I was one-and-twenty I heard him say again, `The heart out of the bosom Was never given in vain; 'Tis paid with sighs a plenty And sold for endless rue.' And I am two-and-twenty And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.

Peter L. Bernstein famous quotes

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