Warren Buffett
The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball. They know that overstaying the festivities ¾ that is, continuing to speculate in companies that have gigantic valuations relative to the cash they are likely to generate in the future ¾ will eventually bring on pumpkins and mice. But they nevertheless hate to miss a single minute of what is one helluva party. Therefore, the giddy participants all plan to leave just seconds before midnight. There’s a problem, though: They are dancing in a room in which the clocks have no hands.
Warren Buffett
Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn’t. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value.
Warren Buffett
We believe that according the name ‘investors’ to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a ‘romantic.’
Warren Buffett
You know, people talk about this being an uncertain time. You know, all time is uncertain. I mean, it was uncertain back in – in 2007, we just didn’t know it was uncertain. It was – uncertain on September 10th, 2001. It was uncertain on October 18th, 1987, you just didn’t know it.
Warren Buffett
I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here.
Warren Buffett
We’ve used up a lot of bullets. And we talk about stimulus. But the truth is, we’re running a federal deficit that’s 9 percent of GDP. That is stimulative as all get out. It’s more stimulative than any policy we’ve followed since World War II.
Warren Buffett
Over the long term, the stock market news will be good. In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.
Warren Buffett The New York Times, October 16, 2008
I am a better investor because I am a businessman, and a better businessman because I am no investor.
Warren Buffett
Economic medicine that was previously meted out by the cupful has recently been dispensed by the barrel. These once unthinkable dosages will almost certainly bring on unwelcome after-effects. Their precise nature is anyone’s guess, though one likely consequence is an onslaught of inflation.
Warren Buffett
I think the most important factor in getting out of the recession actually is just the regenerative capacity of – of American capitalism.
Warren Buffett
It’s never paid to bet against America. We come through things, but its not always a smooth ride.
Warren Buffett
The only time to buy these is on a day with no ‘y’ in it.
Warren Buffett
I just think that – when a country needs more income and we do, we’re only taking in 15 percent of GDP, I mean, that – that – when a country needs more income, they should get it from the people that have it.
Warren Buffett
When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.
Warren Buffett
Americans are in a cycle of fear which leads to people not wanting to spend and not wanting to make investments, and that leads to more fear. We’ll break out of it. It takes time.
Warren Buffett
Suppose that an investor you admire and trust comes to you with an investment idea. “This is a good one,” he says enthusiastically. “I’m in it, and I think you should be, too.”
Would your reply possibly be this? “Well, it all depends on what my tax rate will be on the gain you’re saying we’re going to make. If the taxes are too high, I would rather leave the money in my savings account, earning a quarter of 1 percent.” Only in Grover Norquist’s imagination does such a response exist.
Warren Buffett
Our approach is very much profiting from lack of change rather than from change. With Wrigley chewing gum, it’s the lack of change that appeals to me. I don’t think it is going to be hurt by the Internet. That’s the kind of business I like.
Warren Buffett
Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre.
Warren Buffett
The best thing that happens to us is when a great company gets into temporary trouble…We want to buy them when they’re on the operating table.
Warren Buffett
I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will.
Warren Buffett
It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
Warren Buffett
Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls-Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.
Warren Buffett
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ.
Warren Buffett
After all, you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.
Warren Buffett
When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.
Warren Buffett
I have pledged – to you, the rating agencies and myself – to always run Berkshire with more than ample cash. We never want to count on the kindness of strangers in order to meet tomorrow’s obligations. When forced to choose, I will not trade even a night’s sleep for the chance of extra profits.
Warren Buffett
The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.
Warren Buffett
Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful.
Long ago, Ben Graham taught me that ‘Price is what you pay; value is what you get.’ Whether we’re talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down.
Warren Buffett
Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir Isaac’s talents didn’t extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, “I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.” If he had not been traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well have gone on to discover the Fourth Law of Motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases.
Warren Buffett
Emotional makeup is more important than technical skill.
Warren Buffett
The best thing is to learn from other guys’ mistakes.
Warren Buffett
The most common cause of low prices is pessimism.
Warren Buffett
Our favorite holding period is forever.
Warren Buffett
The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.
Warren Buffett
Beware of geeks bearing formulas.
Warren Buffett
Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.
Warren Buffett
The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth.
Warren Buffett
There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we’ve got a system that allows them to do it.
Warren Buffett
The stock market, like the Lord, helps those who help themselves.
Warren Buffett
Losing some money is an inevitable part of investing and there is nothing you can do to prevent it.
Warren Buffett
You can’t make a good deal with a bad person.
Warren Buffett
No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t product a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.
Warren Buffett
It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.
Warren Buffett
Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.
Warren Buffett
It’s better to hang out with people better than you.
Warren Buffett
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
Warren Buffett
The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we’ll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on.
Warren Buffett
I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.
Warren Buffett
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
Warren Buffett
Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.
Warren Buffett
Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.
Warren Buffett
You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.
Warren Buffett
Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.
Warren Buffett
I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.
Warren Buffett
Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.
Warren Buffett
I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.
Warren Buffett
In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
Warren Buffett
If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end – people like myself – should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.
Warren Buffett
You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.
Warren Buffett
Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.
Warren Buffett
When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.
Warren Buffett
Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.
Warren Buffett
I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.
Warren Buffett
Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.
Warren Buffett
A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
Warren Buffett
If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
Warren Buffett
Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
Warren Buffett
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
Warren Buffett
Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.
Warren Buffett
The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves – and the better the teacher, the better the student body.
Warren Buffett
Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it’s not going to get the business.
Warren Buffett
I am a huge bull on this country. We will not have a double-dip recession at all. I see our businesses coming back almost across the board.
Warren Buffett
Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations.
Warren Buffett
Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.
Warren Buffett
If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.
Warren Buffett
Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, ‘Too much of a good thing can be wonderful’.
Warren Buffett
Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.
Warren Buffett
We’re still in a recession. We’re not gonna be out of it for a while, but we will get out.
Warren Buffett
Value is what you get.
Warren Buffett
Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.
Warren Buffett
There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
Warren Buffett
It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
Warren Buffett
We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.
Warren Buffett
We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.
Warren Buffett
We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.
Warren Buffett
Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.
Warren Buffett
