Quotations by Warren Buffett (1930 - )
- If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
- Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.
- In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
- The only time to buy these is on a day with no ‘y’ in it.
- You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right.
- Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.
- Never invest in a business you cannot understand.
- Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful”.
- I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.
- A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
- It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
- There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
- It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
- Only buy something that you’d be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.
- We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.
- Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it’s not going to get the business.
- Our favourite holding period is forever.
- Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
- Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.
- The business schools reward difficult complex behaviour more than simple behaviour, but simple behaviour is more effective.
- 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.
- We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.
- 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.
- You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.
- Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.
- Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.
- 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.
- I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.
- I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.
- Great investment opportunities come around when excellent companies are surrounded by unusual circumstances that cause the stock to be misappraised.
- Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.
- The world went mad. What we learn from history is that people don’t learn from history. (On the dotcom bubble)
- Investing is not as tough as being a top-notch bridge player. All it takes is the ability to see things as they really are.