Category: Favorite Quotes

Favorite Quotes: Chinese Proverb on the Best Time to Plant a Tree

The Best Time to Plant a Tree

Here is one of my favorite quotes. I find this proverb very inspiring in many ways.

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb

What this quote means to me

The message I get out of this is that it’s never to late to accomplish the things you want to accomplish.

In every day life we all have things we want to do. Maybe our personal goals or something we have always wanted to do, some place to see, or something to accomplish. We could have tried to accomplish it sooner, which may have been a better time, but we can still accomplish those things today — now. This quote inspires me to get out there and do all the things I want to do.

The investor in me views the trees as investments. The best time to start investing was 20 years ago. The second best time to start investing is now. There’s another quote regarding investing that also fits with this: “It’s not timing the market, it’s time in the market.” Time in the market basically means the longer you have investments, the longer your investments have been growing and making you money.

Inspiration

Overall, I think this is a great inspirational quote. We all have trees we want to plant. We shouldn’t give up hope, since we can still plant our tree today.

Favorite Quotes: Benjamin Graham on Wall Street People

Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the legendary value investor Benjamin Graham.

Wall Street people learn nothing and forget everything. – Benjamin Graham

Benjamin Graham was referring to the hype he was saw coming from Wall Street. A lot of speculation. A log of fluffy news. A lot of hype to get traders and investors greedy and wanting more. Graham knew markets would always fluctuate, and he saw a solid investing approach in value investing. He searched for the gems that would reward him tremendously as he held on to it for a longer time. He didn’t seem to care for speculation in the markets at all, and I think this quote really reflects his attitude towards speculators. Maybe he saw speculation as a technique that had perhaps short term potential, but was not a solid long term investing tool.

I agree with Benjamin Graham on Wall Street people – including online daytraders and investors – that most people learn nothing and forget everything. However, there are many of us out there looking to learn more and improve our gains. But we all have to remember the tech boom, and bust. And we still see a lot of hype coming from Wall Street. One week it’s oil. The next week it’s tech. Television shows like Jim Cramer’s Real Money also help build hype and get people hearing about stocks they would normally never have heard of.

What do you think Benjamin Graham was talking about in his quote? Leave your comment!