"You are the very cause of your ignorance, yourselves. You put away the light, yourselves; you first pluck out both your own eyes, yourselves; and after that other men’s too, so that the blind may lead the blind, until you both fall into the pit.”
Thomas More, The Sadness of Christ (Gethsemane), Tower of London, 1535
"Lord, I thank you for your faithfulness and love.
Though the Lord is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly;
though lofty, he sees them from afar.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve my life.
You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes;
with your right hand you save me.
The Lord will preserve me;
your love, Lord, endures for ever –
do not abandon us, the works of your hands."
Psalm 138
"Naked I came into this world from my mother's womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
Job 1:21
"And now, bless the God of all,
who has done wondrous things here on earth;
Who fosters people’s growth from their mother’s womb,
and would fashion them well, according to his will.
May he grant you joy of heart,
and may peace abide among you."
Sirach 50:22-24
"Remember us, O Lord, in thy loving kindness and tender mercies, as ever they have been from old."
Psalm 25:6
"I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing, or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation. And I have learned to be thankful, whether empty or full."
Phillipians 4:11-12
“Man has places in his heart which do not yet exist, and into them enters suffering, in order that they may have life.”
Léon Bloy
"Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations, especially such as have shown kindness unto us, and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord...
Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789."
George Washington
"We’re in the most economically disruptive period since the 1880s and there’s been no bankruptcies. As quantitative easing turns to quantitative tightening, all these zombies are going to be exposed."
Stan Druckenmiller
"The clowns on TV rant about 'the great macro backdrop and alluring valuations.' No mention of liquidity as if they don't know this is the fuel for risk assets. Someone should tell them that the global monetary base began to contract last March and is now running at a -7% YoY rate. The best economy of all time just saw core capex orders decline at a 2.9% annual rate in the three months to October. Imagine what happens when it goes to something less than best...
I love it when people always say I'm always 'too early'. You can be late to a bull market -- it's an escalator on the way up. You can't be late to a bear market -- because it's an elevator going straight down."
David Rosenberg
"Nevertheless, real sums have started to evaporate. And much of it happened with the biggest stocks in so-called tech. The seven FANGMAN stocks – Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google’s parent Alphabet, Microsoft, Apple, and NVIDIA – got hosed today. Again...
It gets costly when the entire market depends on a handful of over-hyped mega-caps."
Wolf Richter, Wolf Street
"The problem with movies and books is they make evil look glamorous, exciting, when it's no such thing. It's boring and it's depressing and it's stupid. Criminals are all after cheap thrills and easy money, and when they get them, all they want is more of the same, over and over. They're shallow, empty, boring people who couldn't give you five minutes of interesting conversation if you had the poor luck to be at a party full of them. Maybe some can be monkey-clever, some of the time, but they aren't hardly ever smart."
Dean Koontz
