James Fisk

"The beauty of financial instruments lies in their plasticity."

"A woman's companionship can be either anchor or sail."

"The stock market rewards those who understand human nature."

"Scandal is merely the price of prominence."

"Few men are truly independent; most are enslaved by their own ambitions."

"The capacity to reinvent oneself is the ultimate survival skill."

"History judges harshly those who fail, but forgets the methods of the successful."

"Entertainment and profit are not mutually exclusive."

"The gentleman's veneer is often the thinnest disguise."

"To lead others, one must first master the art of deception."

"Youth is wasted on the young, who lack the cunning to exploit it."

"The line between speculation and wisdom is drawn by outcomes, not intentions."

"A promise broken strategically can be forgiven; one broken carelessly, never."

"The appetite of the mob for distraction is insatiable and profitable."

"Nature rewards not the virtuous, but the adaptable."

"Every man has his price; some merely require creative accounting."

"The theater taught me that life is performance; success is in the execution."

"Misfortune is often the greatest teacher of resilience."

"The men who build empires are rarely the men the world calls honest."

"To dream without resources is folly; to resource without dreams is bankruptcy."

"Patience is virtue, but impatience is often rewarded."

"The strongest bonds are forged in shared enterprise, not shared values."

"Imagination, properly leveraged, can move markets and mountains."

"The warrior and the merchant are separated only by the weapons they choose."

"A man's past is only relevant if it serves his future."

"The greatest deception is making others believe your ambitions are their interests."

"Courage in business is often indistinguishable from recklessness until success proves otherwise."

"The most dangerous man is not he who acts without thinking, but he who thinks without acting."

"Education teaches what was; ambition creates what will be."

"The worth of knowledge is measured by its utility, not its truth."