“

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

deep-valuephilosophy— Third 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-sheet— Interview, 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-safety— Value 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-edgeresearch— NYU 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-valuationcontrarian— Distress Investing: Principles and Technique, 2009