Let me begin by saying that this obviously isn't a criticism of either Warren Buffett or John Templeton. In fact, Warren Buffet is my investing hero and there is no investor that I respect more. Furthermore, I believe the intended message behind each of these quotes is excellent. The problem is that there is a lot of room for misunderstanding with short quotes (which need to be oversimplified) and I believe that these three quotes are particularly dangerous and susceptible to misunderstanding. "Rule number one is to never lose money and rule number two is to never forget rule number one". --Warren Buffett A beautifully simple quote that emphasizes that the end game in investing is to make money. That said, investors shouldn't actually invest with a goal of "never losing money". If they did so, they would probably invest everything in bank CDs (up to the insured limit), or short-term Treasuries, or put their money under their mattresses (and even those strategies would only help them preserve money in nominal terms). Bernie Madoff also had an interesting strategy for never losing money, but I wouldn't recommend that either. Read more