Safe and cheap. That's my investment philosophy in three words. Everything else is noise.

deep-valuephilosophyThird Avenue Management shareholder letter, 2002

Most investors spend too much time on earnings and not enough time on balance sheets. The balance sheet tells you what a company owns. The income statement tells you what management wants you to think.

accountingbalance-sheetInterview, Morningstar, 2003

The key to investing is not predicting the future. It's buying assets at a discount so large that even if you're wrong about the future, you still win.

deep-valuemargin-of-safetyValue Investing: A Balanced Approach, 2000

There is no substitute for knowing more about a company than almost anyone else in the market. That knowledge is the edge.

information-edgeresearchNYU lecture series, 2007

Distressed investing is not about buying garbage. It's about buying assets that the market has mispriced because the situation looks messy. Messy does not mean worthless.

asset-valuationcontrarianDistress Investing: Principles and Technique, 2009