
“There are 2 rules in life:
Number 1- Never quit
Number2- Never forget rule number 1.”
The Problem with God: The Tale of a Twisted Confession
The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates (2012)
“There are 2 rules in life:
Number 1- Never quit
Number2- Never forget rule number 1.”
Letter to S. Stanwood Menken, chairman, committee on Congress of Constructive Patriotism (January 10, 1917). Roosevelt’s sister, Mrs. Douglas Robinson, read the letter to a national meeting, January 26, 1917. Reported in Proceedings of the Congress of Constructive Patriotism, Washington, D.C., January 25–27, 1917 (1917), p. 172
1910s
Context: Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood—the virtues that made America. The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
“Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1.”
This maxim (perhaps of gambling or horse racing origin) is widely attributed to Warren Buffett and, as such, has traditionally been cited in print; notably, it was attributed (perhaps facetiously) to him by Mary Buffett in, The Tao of Warren Buffett. A more uncommon, less well known version, and perhaps one with a more lasting credibility (or certainly with a higher degree of checkability), would be: "The first rule is don't lose, and the second rule is never forget the first rule." This version was noted by Steve Forbes in a friendly meeting in Omaha, in an article published as: Jay-Z, Buffett and Forbes on Success and Giving Back. This article is available on the Forbes website, published on September 23, 2010.
Disputed
Variant: Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1.
Letter to S. Stanwood Menken, chairman, committee on Congress of Constructive Patriotism (January 10, 1917). Roosevelt’s sister, Mrs. Douglas Robinson, read the letter to a national meeting, January 26, 1917. Reported in Proceedings of the Congress of Constructive Patriotism, Washington, D.C., January 25–27, 1917 (1917), p. 172
1910s
It is a vast country, with no clearly defined objectives.
In the House of Lords, 30 May 1962 ( Hansard, Col. 227 http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1962/may/30/the-army-estimates#S5LV0241P0-00791)
“Two key rules of Third World travel: 1. Never run out of whiskey. 2. Never run out of whiskey.”
All the Trouble in the World (1994)
Commencement speech at Cornell College in Iowa on 5 June 1944, as quoted by Henry H. Adams in Witness to Power: The Life of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy (1985), p. 246
1940s