Thomas William Phelps > Quotes

“The point I am trying to make, of course, is that even if one knew what the stock market was going to do, it could still be more profitable to forget it and concentrate on trying to find the right stock to buy.”
― Thomas William Phelps, 100 to 1 in the Stock Market: A Distinguished Security Analyst Tells How to Make More of Your Investment Opportunities

“them. Inevitably they bring into the organization and promote to higher levels men like themselves. The moral cancer thus introduced cannot be extirpated simply by removing the evil genius at the top. It may take a generation under a good management to purge the organization of the unprincipled sharp-shooters brought in by a bad management. Hence it is unwise to look for a quick turnaround in any organization whose management has demonstrated a lack of moral principle.”
― Thomas William Phelps, 100 to 1 in the Stock Market: A Distinguished Security Analyst Tells How to Make More of Your Investment Opportunities

“So it is with corporations. No matter how broad-minded we are, how dedicated to equal opportunity, we tend to hire and promote “our kind of people.” When morally derelict men get to the top of great corporations and stay there for a period of years, the evil they do does indeed live after”
― Thomas William Phelps, 100 to 1 in the Stock Market: A Distinguished Security Analyst Tells How to Make More of Your Investment Opportunities

“More than thirty-five years ago Scudder, Stevens & Clark issued a brochure entitled “Monuments Rarely Pay Dividends.” “When a business begins to get stately,” it said, “wise investors quietly get out from under. For monuments rarely pay dividends.”
― Thomas William Phelps, 100 to 1 in the Stock Market: A Distinguished Security Analyst Tells How to Make More of Your Investment Opportunities

“court. But the most knowledgeable people in the oil industry would know that that is not quite the way things are. I don’t ever want to say anything that those who know the most can question. Let’s try a different approach.” He did not say it to impress anyone. No one else was in the room with us. And until now I have never told the story publicly. But it set a standard of integrity in high places that has long outlived him.”
― Thomas William Phelps, 100 to 1 in the Stock Market: A Distinguished Security Analyst Tells How to Make More of Your Investment Opportunities