Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Beware [of] the investment activity that produces applause; the great moves are usually greeted by yawns.
We make investment decisions based on our evaluation of the most profitable combination of probabilities.
Investing in yourself is the best thing you can do. If you've got talents, no one can take them from you.
You get what I call the natural progression, the three Is. The innovators, the imitators, and the idiots.
If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy.
We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.
Things you like to do should be a hobby of yours, but things the world does should be a business of yours.
There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.
I think I could make you fifty percent a year on one million dollars. No, I know I could. I guarantee that.
The best investment you can make, is an investment in yourself... The more you learn, the more you'll earn.
When Berkshire buys common stock, we approach the transaction as if we were buying into a private business.
The fact that people will be full of greed, fear, or folly is predictable. The sequence is not predictable.
As one of my older friends says, "Nostalgia just isn't what it used to be." Let's take a stab at it, anyway.
Our goal is to find an outstanding business at a sensible price, not a mediocre business at a bargain price.
I can do anything I want, basically, as long as it doesn't involve athletic ability, or something like that.
The dominant factors affecting control valuations are earning power (past and prospective) and asset values.
I like to go for cinches. I like to shoot fish in a barrel. But I like to do it after the water has run out.
If you can't communicate and talk to other people and get across your ideas, you're giving up your potential.
I think that trying to invest through 535 people is a tough job, you know, and so I would give more latitude.
The rest of the world really likes our stuff pretty well. It's just we buy so damn much of what they produce.
Derivatives are like sex. It's not who we're sleeping with, it's who they're sleeping with that's the problem.
Equities will do well over time - you just have to avoid getting excited when other people are getting excited.
When I take a look at a company's annual report, if I don't understand it, they don't want me to understand it.
How do you beat Bobby Fischer? You play him at any game but chess. I try to stay in games where I have an edge.
Games are won by players who focus on the playing field -- not by those whose eyes are glued to the scoreboard.
Like I say, I don't think it'll be done perfectly. Maybe we'll end up with a little bit better [economy] system.
Trust is like the air we breathe--when it's present, nobody really notices; when it's absent, everybody notices.
We've had public companies in the past in that business and they bleed. We've got a lot more blood than they do.
Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.
When you're associating with the people that you love, doing what you love, it doesn't get any better than that.
The stock market is a wonderfully efficient mechanism for transferring wealth from the impatient to the patient.
In fact, in my adult lifetime, I don't think I've ever seen people as fearful economically as they are right now.
A great investment opportunity occurs when a marvelous business encounters a one-time huge, but solvable problem.
The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don’t have to swing at everything – you can wait for your pitch.
Do what you love and work for whom you admire the most, and you've given yourself the best chance in life you can.
Knowing the edge of your competency is important. If you think you know more than you do, you will get in trouble.
The critical investment factor is determining the intrinsic value of a business and paying a fair or bargain price.
Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.
We all make mistakes. If you can't make mistakes, you can't make decisions. I've made a lot bigger mistakes myself.
If AIG had tried to unwind their derivatives books. I don't know. It would have hit every institution in the world.
People always should know better. People don't get - they don't get smarter about things that get as basic as greed.
When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.
Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they're doing.
We've used derivatives for many, many years. I don't think derivatives are evil, per se, I think they are dangerous.
Investment students need only two well-taught courses - How to Value a Business and How to Think About Market Prices
I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will.
In the long run managements stressing accounting appearance over economic substance usually achieve little of either.
I mean, you know, you're not going to change the human animal. And the human animal really doesn't get a lot smarter.
Having first rate people on the team is more important than designing hierarchies and clarifying who reports to whom.
Much success can be attributed to inactivity. Most investors cannot resist the temptation to constantly buy and sell.