Your life must focus on the maximization of objectivity. Charlie Munger More Quotes by Charlie Munger More Quotes From Charlie Munger ...being an effective teacher is a high calling. Charlie Munger effective-teacher calling teacher There is the sheer amount of Franklin's wisdom. And the talent. Franklin played four instruments. He was the nation's leading scientist and inventor, plus a leading author, statesman, and philanthropist. There has never been anyone like him. Charlie Munger franklin talent four The cost of being a publicly traded stock has gone way, way up. It doesn't make sense for a little company to be public anymore. A lot of little companies are going private to be rid of these burdensome requirements. Charlie Munger cost gone littles Litigation is notoriously time-consuming, inefficient, costly and unpredictable. Charlie Munger time-consuming consuming unpredictable I believe that we are at or near the apex of a great civilization... In 50-100 years, if we're a poor third to some countries in Asia, I wouldn't be surprised. If I had to bet, the part of the world that will do best will be Asia. Charlie Munger believe country years There's no way that you can live an adequate life without making many mistakes. Charlie Munger adequate mistake way What do you want to avoid? Such an easy answer: sloth and unreliability. If you're unreliable it doesn't matter what your virtues are. You're going to crater immediately. Doing what you have faithfully engaged to do should be an automatic part of your conduct. You want to avoid sloth and unreliability. Charlie Munger unreliability sloth answers I have concluded that most PhD economists under appraise the power of the common-stock-based "wealth effect," under current extreme conditions... "Wealth effects" involve mathematical puzzles that are not nearly so well worked out as physics theories and never can be... What has happened in Japan over roughly the last ten years has shaken up academic economics, as it obviously should, creating strong worries about recession from "wealth effects" in reverse. Charlie Munger creating strong worry It's not the bad ideas that do you in, but the good ones. Charlie Munger bad-ideas ideas Harvard and Yale concentrated with venture capitalists that got the best calls and brainpower. Very few firms made most of the money, and they made it in just a few periods. Everyone else returned between mediocre and lousy. When returns happened, envy rippled through institutional money management. The amount invested in venture capital went up 10 times post-1999. That later money was lost very quickly. It will happen again. I don't know anyone who successfully resists this stuff. It becomes a new orthodoxy. Charlie Munger venture-capitalists envy yale I think liberal art faculties at major universities have views that are not very sound, at least on public policy issues - they may know a lot of French however. Charlie Munger views art thinking Of course I'm troubled by huge consumer debt levels - we've pushed consumer credit very hard in the US. Eventually, if it keeps growing, it will stop growing. As Herb Stein said, "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." When it stops, it may be unpleasant. Other than Herb Stein's quote, I have no comment. But the things that trouble you are troubling me. Charlie Munger debt credit forever Whoever makes you smarter a little earlier in life makes you better Charlie Munger smarter littles You'll better understand the evil when top audit firms started selling fraudulent tax shelters when I tell you that one told me that they're better [than the others] because they only sold [the schemes] to their top-20 clients, so no-one would notice. Charlie Munger shelter clients evil The harder you work, the more confidence you get. But you may be working hard on something that is false. Charlie Munger simplicity insightful may I've been associated with Warren ( Buffett) so long, I thought I'd be just a footnote. Charlie Munger buffett warren-buffet long It's natural that you'd have more brains going into money management. There are so many huge incomes in money management and investment banking - it's like ants to sugar. There are huge incentives for a man to take up money management as opposed to, say, physics, and it's a lot easier. Charlie Munger income brain men What's the best way to get a good spouse? The best single way is to deserve a good spouse because a good spouse is by definition not nuts. Charlie Munger single definitions nuts There's more honor in investment management than in investment banking. Charlie Munger banking management honor Good businesses can survive a little bad management. Charlie Munger good-business management littles