It is the privilege of a trader in a free country, in all matters not contrary to law, to regulate his own mode of carrying it on according to his own discretion and choice.

If you understood a business perfectly and the future of the business, you would need very little in the way of a margin of safety. So, the more vulnerable the business is, assuming you still want to invest in it, the larger margin of safety you'd need. If you're driving a truck across a bridge that says it holds 10,000 pounds and you've got a 9,800 pound vehicle, if the bridge is 6 inches above the crevice it covers, you may feel okay, but if it's over the Grand Canyon, you may feel you want a little larger margin of safety...

I love a broad margin to my life.

I like being on the margins. You work better there.

Your margin is my opportunity.

I left my fingerprints somewhere - that's good enough. I am my own person - that's good enough. I stand my ground - that's good enough.

And it’s not because I’m tortured
Or by some delirium swayed
That I conjure up misfortune:
It is just my trade.

I know my crafts and I can defend my handiwork wherever, whenever, and to whomever.

See me safe up: for in my coming down, I can shift for myself.

I have organized my career and business in such a way as to... benefit... I am profiting from the rare event, with asymmetric bets.

I know what's what, and have always taken care of the main chance.

Conservative is avoiding a certain level of risk. Margin of safety is raising the odds of success at a given level of risk by increasing your chances of survival. Its magic is that the higher your margin of safety, the smaller your edge needs to be to have a favorable outcome.

I will work in my own way, according to the light that is in me.

I've always had to do things my way; I play guitar my way; I've taken myself to the edges of life my way; I've gotten clean my way; And I'm still here. Whether or not I deserve to be is another story.