About

"You can get a good deal based on quantitative analysis, but what's going to drive the business is whether you understand the qualitative factors." - ?

"I started out very influenced by Graham, so I emphasised quantitative factors. Charlie came along and said I was all wrong, and that he'd learned more in law than I'd learned in financial studies and everything, and that I should think more about qualitative factors, and he was right. And Phil Fisher said the same thing." - Warren Buffett

"Quantitative data is efficiently priced, qualitative insight is not." - Pat Dorsey

"Interesting enough, although I consider myself to be primarily in the quantitative school, the really sensational ideas I have had over the years have been heavily weighted toward the qualitative side where I have had a 'high probability insight.' This is what causes the cash register to really sing. So the really big money tends to be made by investors who are right on qualitative decisions, at least in my opinion." - Warren Buffett

"Our process is very qualitative. What we're trying to think about are what are the drivers? Where will the revenues of this company be 5 or 10 years from now? What are the competitive advantages which is really getting into questions about profitability and margins? But what is the corporate culture? What is it that makes this business special? Why can't somebody else do it? And we think if we can answer some of these more causative questions, I think it gets you to broadly correct answers. The left of the decimal point, if you will. And I see much more value in this." - Tom Slater

"Ultimately, for long-term investors it is crucial to look beyond quantitative metrics. While characteristic of many great companies, on their own they prove poor predictors of future investment returns. Reported financial metrics tell us how things were, rather than how they are going to be. They may help in identifying past winners, but not necessarily the long-term winners of the future and certainly not the emergent winners that defy traditional definitions of "quality." - Tom Walsh, Ballie Gifford

Second-order thinking

"First-level thinking is simplistic and superficial, and just about everyone can do it (a bad sign for anything involving an attempt at superiority). All the first-level thinker needs is an opinion about the future, as in “The outlook for the company is favorable, meaning the stock will go up.” Second-level thinking is deep, complex and convoluted." - Howard Marks, The Most Important Thing

Extraordinary performance comes from seeing things that other people can't see.