Inspirational Quotes by Bernard M. Baruch (American Financier)

We can’t cross a bridge until we come to it; but I always like to lay down a pontoon ahead of time.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Planning

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 M. Baruch
Topics: Ideas

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 M. Baruch
Topics: Gold

I will never be an old man. To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Age, Aging

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 M. Baruch
Topics: Failures, Mistakes

Approach each new problem not with a view of finding what you hope will be there, but to get the truth, the realities that must be grappled with. You may not like what you find. In that case you are entitled to try to change it. But do not deceive yourself as to what you do find to be the facts of the situation.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Facts

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 M. Baruch
Topics: Character

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 M. Baruch
Topics: Accomplishment, Retirement, Age

Bears don’t live on Park Avenue.
—Bernard M. Baruch

Whatever task you undertake, do it with all your heart and soul. Always be courteous, never be discouraged. Beware of him who promises something for nothing. Do not blame anybody for your mistakes and failures. Do not look for approval except the consciousness of doing your best.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Blame, Self-reliance, Excellence, Responsibility, Mistakes, Confidence, Acceptance, Awareness, Failures, Self-Discovery, Realization

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 M. Baruch
Topics: Success

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 M. Baruch
Topics: Thought, Planning

Always do one thing less than you think you can do.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Contentment, Happiness

There is too much emphasis on the alleged need for more purchasing power. What the country needs stable purchasing power. Increased wages, higher pensions, more unemployment insurance, all are of no avail if the purchasing power of money falls faster.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Money, Business

I made my money by selling too soon.
—Bernard M. Baruch

Higher prices are themselves inflation and not merely the result of it. They are accelerated and not stopped by taxation…. It isn’t high prices that persuade the high cost and marginal producer to make the investment necessary to bring him into production. It is the promise of profit. High prices without profit merely requires more investment to support turnover and inventory.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Profit

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

I get the facts, I study them patiently, I apply imagination.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Imagination

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

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 M. Baruch
Topics: Discipline

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 M. Baruch
Topics: Economy

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 M. Baruch
Topics: Politicians, Politics

Every man has a right to be wrong in his opinions. But no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Facts, Opinion, Opinions

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

Save for gold, jewels, works of art, perhaps good agricultural land, and a very few other things, there ain’t no such animal as a permanent investment.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Wealth

I am quite sure that in the hereafter she will take me by the hand and lead me to my proper seat.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Teaching

You 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 the form of government.
—Bernard M. Baruch

Vote for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least disappointing.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Politics, Promises, Voting

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

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

Don’t try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. This can’t be done, except by liars.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Business

Only as you do know yourself can your brain serve you as a sharp and efficient tool. Know your 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.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Self-Knowledge, Identity

The ability to express an idea is well nigh as important as the idea itself.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Speech, Communication

Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Success, Success & Failure

Old age is fifteen years older than I am.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Age, Birthdays

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 M. Baruch
Topics: Responsibility

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 M. Baruch

Millions saw the apple fall, but Newton was the one who asked why.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Questions, Questioning, Curiosity

The greatest blessing of our democracy is freedom. But in the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves. Discipline is deciding not to be led around by our gotta haves. It is the task of a lifetime, an indispensable prerequisite to success, and the only way to be truly free.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Freedom

Two things are bad for the heart—running up stairs and running down people.
—Bernard M. Baruch
Topics: Heart

Wondering Whom to Read Next?

• Al Gore American Politician, Environmentalist
• Warren Buffett American Investor
• Charlie Munger American Investor, Philanthropist
• Jesse Lauriston Livermore American Investor
• Ray Dalio American Investor
• Mohnish Pabrai Indian-American Investor, Philanthropist
• T. Boone Pickens American Businessman, Financier
• Eli Broad American Entrepreneur
• Peter Thiel American Entrepreneur
• Henry Kissinger American Diplomat