Bernard Baruch Quotes & Sayings

Agriculture is the greatest and fundamentally the most important of our industries. The cities are but the branches of the tree of national life, the roots of which go deeply into the land. We all flourish or decline with the farmer. — Bernard Baruch

There are no such things as incurable, there are only things for which man has not found a cure. — Bernard Baruch

The greatest blessing of our democracy is freedom. But in the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves. — Bernard Baruch

You can talk about capitalism and communism and all that sort of thing, but the important thing is the struggle everybody is engaged in to get better living conditions, and they are not interested too much in government. — Bernard Baruch

I have learned the truth of the observation that the more one approaches great men the more one finds that they are men. — Bernard Baruch

Be quick to praise people. People like to praise those who praise them. — Bernard Baruch

Our problem in money-making or government affairs is how to remain properly venturesome and experimental without making fools of ourselves. — Bernard Baruch

Although the shooting war is over, we are in the midst of a cold war which is getting warmer. — Bernard Baruch

Science has taught us how to put the atom to work. But to make it work for good instead of for evil lies in the domain dealing with the principles of human duty. We are now facing a problem more of ethics than physics. — Bernard Baruch

Don't try to be a jack of all investments. Stick to the field you know best. — Bernard Baruch

One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life is to forgive everybody everything everynight before you go to bed. — Bernard Baruch

Bears don't live on Park Avenue. — Bernard Baruch

Whatever men attempt, they seem driven to overdo. When hopes are soaring, I always repeat to myself that two and two still make four. — Bernard Baruch

If you have made a mistake cut your losses as quickly as possible. — Bernard Baruch

Whatever you do, do it with all your heart and soul. — Bernard Baruch

Don't speculate unless you can make it a full time job. — Bernard Baruch

The ability to express an idea is well nigh as important as the idea itself. — Bernard Baruch

Unless each man produces more than he receives, increases his output, there will be less for him than all the others. — Bernard Baruch

I'll give you the bottom 10% and the top 10% of any move if I get to keep the middle 80%. — Bernard Baruch

Everyone is entitled to be wrong about their opinions, but no one has the right to be wrong about their facts. — Bernard Baruch

Do not blame anybody for your mistakes and failures. — Bernard Baruch

No man should think himself a zero, and think he can do nothing about the state of the world. — Bernard Baruch

Now is always the hardest time to invest. — Bernard Baruch

You can overcome anything if you don't bellyache. — Bernard Baruch

Nobody ever lost money taking a profit. — Bernard Baruch

Learn to take losses quickly and cleanly. There is something about inside information which seems to paralyze a man's reasoning powers. Beware of barbers, beauticians, waiters - or anyone - bringing gifts of 'inside' information or tips. Don't try to be a jack of all investment. Stick to the field you know best. — Bernard Baruch

A man sentenced to death obtained a reprieve by assuring the king he would teach his majesty's horse to fly within the year - on the condition that if he didn't succeed, he would be put to death at the end of the year. "Within a year," the man explained later, "the king may die, or I may die, or the horse may die. Furthermore, in a year, who knows? Maybe the horse will learn to fly." My philosophy is like that man's. I take the long-range view. — Bernard Baruch

It is far more difficult ... to know when to sell a stock than when to buy. — Bernard Baruch

America has never forgotten - and will never forget - the nobler things that brought her into being and that light her path - the path that was entered upon only one hundred and fifty years ago ... How young she is! It will be centuries before she will adopt that maturity of custom - the clothing of the grave - that some people believe she is already fitted for. — Bernard Baruch

Creativity: Take the obvious, add a cupful of brains, a generous pinch of imagination, a bucketful of courage and daring, stir well and bring to a boil. — Bernard Baruch

Let us not deceive ourselves; we must elect world peace or world destruction. — Bernard Baruch

You can't repeal human nature by an Act of Congress. — Bernard Baruch

There is something about inside information which seems to paralyse a man's reasoning powers. — Bernard Baruch

Let us not be deceived we are today in the midst of a cold war. — Bernard Baruch

Age is only a number, a cipher for the records. A man can't retire his experience. He must use it. Experience achieves more with less energy and time. — Bernard Baruch

In trading/ investing it's not about how much you make, but how much you don't lose — Bernard Baruch

I am interested in physical medicine because my father was. I am interested in medical research because I believe in it. I am interested in arthritis because I have it. — Bernard Baruch

During my eighty-seven years I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think. — Bernard Baruch

Peace is never long preserved by weight of metal or by an armament race. Peace can be made tranquil and secure only by understanding and agreement fortified by sanctions. We must embrace international cooperation or international disintegration. Science has taught us how to put the atom to work. But to make it work for good instead of for evil lies in the domain dealing with the principles of human dignity. We are now facing a problem more of ethics than of physics. — Bernard Baruch

When good news about the market hits the front page of the New York Times, sell. — Bernard Baruch

The essence of any plan for financing old age is saving-to put aside some part of today's earnings for the future. Anything that saps the value of savings-and inflation is the worst single threat-is the enemy of the aged and of those who expect to grow old. — Bernard Baruch

Information cannot serve as an effective substitute for thinking. — Bernard Baruch

I was the son of an immigrant. I experienced bigotry, intolerance and prejudice, even as so many of you have. Instead of allowing these thing to embitter me, I took them as spurs to more strenuous effort. — Bernard Baruch

We can't cross that bridge until we come to it, but I always like to lay down a pontoon ahead of time. — Bernard Baruch

Recipe for success: Be polite, prepare yourself for whatever you are asked to do, keep yourself tidy, be cheerful, don't be envious, be honest with yourself so you will be honest with others, be helpful, interest yourself in your job, don't pity yourself, be quick to praise, be loyal to your friends, avoid prejudices, be independent, interest yourself in politics, and read the newspapers. — Bernard Baruch

Old books that have ceased to be of service should no more be abandoned than should old friends who have ceased to give pleasure. — Bernard Baruch

Never play tips from "insiders." They can't see the forest for the trees. — Bernard Baruch

If the history of the past fifty years teaches us anything, it is that peace does not follow disarmament - disarmament follows peace. — Bernard Baruch

Most of the successful people I know mostly listen, not talk. — Bernard Baruch

A dangerous fallacy is to repudiate freedom in favor of an unknown future. What else but our own sturdy reliance on freedom can explain the unexampled record this country has made? In a period scarcely twice my own lifetime it has risen from nothingness to become the world's greatest power. It has become the ark of the covenant of freedom. — Bernard Baruch

When the outlook is steeped in pessimism, I remind myself, "Two and two still make four, and you can't keep humankind down for long." — Bernard Baruch

Gold has worked down from Alexander's time ... When something holds good for two thousand years I do not believe it can be so because of prejudice or mistaken theory. — Bernard Baruch

Always do one thing less than you think you can do. — Bernard Baruch

The art of living lies not in eliminating but in growing with troubles. — Bernard Baruch

We did not all come over on the same ship, but we are all in the same boat. — Bernard Baruch

Become more humble as the market goes your way. — Bernard Baruch

If a speculator is correct half of the time, he is hitting a good average. Even being right 3 or 4 times out of 10 should yield a person a fortune if he has the sense to cut his losses quickly on the ventures where he is wrong. — Bernard Baruch

Making a success of the job at hand is the best step toward the kind you want. — Bernard Baruch

A man can't retire his experience. — Bernard Baruch

Even when we know what is right, too often we fail to act. More often we grab greedily for the day, letting tomorrow bring what it will, putting off the unpleasant and unpopular. — Bernard Baruch

I have known men who could see through the motivations of others with the skill of a clairvoyant; only to prove blind to their own mistakes. I have been one of those men. — Bernard Baruch

Only as you do know yourself can your brain serve you as a sharp and efficient tool. Know your own failings, passions, and prejudices so you can separate them from what you see. — Bernard Baruch

America has never forgotten - and never will forget - the nobler things that brought her into being and that light her path. — Bernard Baruch

So efficient are the available instruments of slavery; fingerprints, lie detectors, brain washings, gas chambers; that we shiver at the thought of political change which might put these instruments in the hands of men of hate. — Bernard Baruch

We are living in a highly organized state of socialism. The state is all; the individual is of importance only as he contributes to the welfare of the state. His property is only his as the state does not need it. He must hold his life and his possessions at the call of the state. — Bernard Baruch

To me - old age is always ten years older than I am. — Bernard Baruch

Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in private and public life have been the consequence of action without thought. — Bernard Baruch

I get the facts, I study them patiently, I apply imagination. — Bernard Baruch

Society can progress if men's labors show a profit - if they yield more than is put in. To produce at a loss must leave less for all to share. — Bernard Baruch

Buy straw hats in the wintertime. Summer will surely come. — Bernard Baruch

The stock market is people. — Bernard Baruch

No man can humiliate me or disturb me. I won't let him. — Bernard Baruch

A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren't still there, he's no longer a political leader. — Bernard Baruch

We grow neither better or worse as we get old, but more like ourselves. — Bernard Baruch

A speculator is a man who observes the future, and acts before it occurs. — Bernard Baruch

Government is not a substitute for people, but simply the instrument through which they act. And if the individual fails to do his duty as a citizen, government becomes a very deadly instrument indeed. — Bernard Baruch

Nothing did more to spur the boom in stocks than the decision made by the New York Federal Reserve bank, in the spring of 1927, to cut the rediscount rate. Benjamin Strong, Governor of the bank, was chief advocate of this unwise measure, which was taken largely at the behest of Montagu Norman of the Bank of England ... At the time of the Banks action I warned of its consequences ... I felt that sooner or later the market had to break. — Bernard Baruch

Never answer a critic, unless he's right. — Bernard Baruch

Only liars manage to always be out during bad times and in during good times. — Bernard Baruch

We are here today to make a choice between the quick and the dead. — Bernard Baruch

Never pay the slightest attention to what a company president ever says about his stock. — Bernard Baruch

The terror created by weaponry has never stopped men from employing them. — Bernard Baruch

Increased wages, higher pensions, more unemployment insurance, all are of no avail if the purchasing power of money falls faster. — Bernard Baruch

Get to know yourself. Know your own failings, passions, and prejudices so you can separate them from what you see. Know also when you actually have thought through to the nature of the thing with which you are dealing and when you are not thinking at all ... Knowing yourself and knowing the facts, you can judge whether you can change the situation so it is more to your liking. If you cannot
or if you do not know how to improve on things
then discipline yourself to the adjustments that will be necessary. — Bernard Baruch

If you get all the facts, your judgment can be right; if you don't get all the facts, it can't be right. — Bernard Baruch

When beggars and shoeshine boys, barbers and beauticians can tell you how to get rich it is time to remind yourself that there is no more dangerous illusion than the belief that one can get something for nothing. — Bernard Baruch

Don't try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. It can't be done except by liars. — Bernard Baruch

All economic movements, by their very nature, are motivated by crowd psychology. — Bernard Baruch

Colleges don't teach economics properly. Unfortunately we learn little from the experience of the past. An economist must know, besides his subject, ethics, logic, philosophy, the humanities and sociology, in fact everything that is part of how we live and react to one another. — Bernard Baruch

Chance sometimes opens the door, but luck belongs to the good players. — Bernard Baruch

The longer I operated on Wall Street the more distrustful I became of tips and inside information of every kind. Given time, I believe that inside information can break the Bank of England — Bernard Baruch