WARREN BUFFETT QUOTES
“Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look
for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you
don’t have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it;
it’s true. If you hire somebody without [integrity], you really want
them to be dumb and lazy.”
“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
“The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging.”
“Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful”
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minuted to ruin
it. If you think about that you'll do things differently.”
“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
“You never know who's swimming naked until the tide goes out.”
“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.”
“Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing”
“There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult. ”
“If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy.”
“If you’re in the luckiest one per cent of humanity, you owe it to
the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.”
“In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.”
“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.”
“You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.”
“You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”
“It's nice to have a lot of money, but you know, you don't want to
keep it around forever. I prefer buying things. Otherwise, it's a
little like saving sex for your old age.”
“Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill. ”
“There comes a time when you ought to start doing what you want.
Take a job that you love. You will jump out of bed in the morning. I
think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you don't
like because you think it will look good on your resume. Isn't that a
little like saving up sex for your old age?”
“I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just
sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and
think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse
decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind
of life.”
“I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law that
says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP all sitting
members of congress are ineligible for reelection.”
“I will tell you the secret to getting rich on Wall Street. You
try to be greedy when others are fearful. And you try to be fearful when
others are greedy.”
“I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted it for a minute. ”
“No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take
time. You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women
pregnant.”
“Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future.”
“Honesty is a very expensive gift, Don't expect it from cheap people.”
“Investors should be skeptical of history-based models.
Constructed by a nerdy-sounding priesthood using esoteric terms such as
beta, gamma, sigma and the like, these models tend to look impressive.
Too often, though, investors forget to examine the assumptions behind
the models. Beware of geeks bearing formulas. ”
“You know ... you keep doing the same things and you keep getting the same result over and over again.”
“The attitude of our managers vividly contrasts with that of the
young man who married a tycoon's only child, a decidedly homely and dull
lass. Relieved, the father called in his new son- in-law after the
wedding and began to discuss the future:
Son, you're the boy I always wanted and never had. Here's a stock certificate for 50% of the company. You're my equal partner from now on.'
Thanks, dad.'
Now, what would you like to run? How about sales?'
I'm afraid I couldn't sell water to a man crawling in the Sahara.'
Well then, how about heading human relations?'
I really don't care for people.'
No problem, we have lots of other spots in the business. What would you like to do?'
Actually, nothing appeals to me. Why don't you just buy me out?”
Son, you're the boy I always wanted and never had. Here's a stock certificate for 50% of the company. You're my equal partner from now on.'
Thanks, dad.'
Now, what would you like to run? How about sales?'
I'm afraid I couldn't sell water to a man crawling in the Sahara.'
Well then, how about heading human relations?'
I really don't care for people.'
No problem, we have lots of other spots in the business. What would you like to do?'
Actually, nothing appeals to me. Why don't you just buy me out?”
“Rule No. 1 : Never lose money. Rule No. 2 : Never forget Rule No. 1.”
“Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future.”
“Failing conventionally is the route to go; as a group, lemmings
may have a rotten image, but no individual lemming has ever received bad
press”
“I do know that when I am 60, I should be attempting to achieve
different personal goals than those which had priority at age 20.”
“When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.”
“An investor should act as though he had a lifetime decision card with just twenty punches on it.”
“Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.”
“You do things when the opportunities come along. I've had periods
in my life when I've had a bundle of ideals come along, and I've had
long dry spells. If I get an ideal next week, I'll do something. If not,
I won't do a damn thing.”
“A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.”
“I won't close down a business of subnormal profitability merely
to add a fraction of a point to our corporate returns. I also feel it
inappropriate for even an exceptionally profitable company to fund an
operation once it appears to have unending losses in prospect. Adam
Smith would disagree with my first proposition and Karl Marx would
disagree with my second; the middle ground is the only position that
leaves me comfortable.”
“In the long run managements stressing accounting appearance over economic substance usually achieve little of either.”
“People always ask me where they should go to work, and I always tell them to go to work for whom they admire the most.”
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“I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.”
“What the wise do in the beginning, fools do in the end.”
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“In some corner of the world they are probably still holding
regular meetings of the Flat Earth Society. We derive no comfort because
important people, vocal people, or great numbers of people agree with
us. Nor do we derive comfort if they don't.”
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“When I was sixteen, I had just two things on my mind - girls and
cars. I wasn't very good with girls. So I thought about cars. I thought
about girls, too, but I had more luck with cars.
Let's say that when I turned sixteen, a genie had appeared to me. And that genie said, 'Warren, I'm going to give you the car of your choice. It'll be here tomorrow morning with a big bow tied on it. Brand-new. And it's all yours.'
Having heard all the genie stories, I would say, 'What's the catch?' And the genie would answer, 'There's only one catch. This is the last car you're ever going to ge tin your life. So it's got to last a lifetime.'
If that had happened, I would have picked out that car. But, can you imagine, knowing it had to last a lifetime, what I would do with it?
I would read the manual about five times. I would always keep it garaged. If there was the least little dent or scratch, I'd have it fixed right away because I wouldn't want it rusting. I would baby that car, because it would have to last a lifetime.
That's exactly the position you are in concerning your mind and body. You only get one mind and one body. And it's got to last a lifetime. Now, it's very easy to let them ride for many years. But if you don't take care of that mind and that body, they'll be a wreck forty years later, just life the car would be.
It's what you do right now, today, that determines how your mind and body will operate ten, twenty, and thirty years from now.”
―
Let's say that when I turned sixteen, a genie had appeared to me. And that genie said, 'Warren, I'm going to give you the car of your choice. It'll be here tomorrow morning with a big bow tied on it. Brand-new. And it's all yours.'
Having heard all the genie stories, I would say, 'What's the catch?' And the genie would answer, 'There's only one catch. This is the last car you're ever going to ge tin your life. So it's got to last a lifetime.'
If that had happened, I would have picked out that car. But, can you imagine, knowing it had to last a lifetime, what I would do with it?
I would read the manual about five times. I would always keep it garaged. If there was the least little dent or scratch, I'd have it fixed right away because I wouldn't want it rusting. I would baby that car, because it would have to last a lifetime.
That's exactly the position you are in concerning your mind and body. You only get one mind and one body. And it's got to last a lifetime. Now, it's very easy to let them ride for many years. But if you don't take care of that mind and that body, they'll be a wreck forty years later, just life the car would be.
It's what you do right now, today, that determines how your mind and body will operate ten, twenty, and thirty years from now.”
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“I don't have a problem with guilt about money. The way I see it
is that my money represents an enormous number of claim checks on
society. It's like I have these little pieces of paper that I can turn
into consumption. If I wanted to, I could hire 10,000 people to do
nothing but paint my picture every day for the rest of my life. And the
GDP would go up. But the utility of the product would be zilch, and I
would be keeping those 10,000 people from doing AIDS research, or
teaching, or nursing. I don't do that though. I don't use very many of
those claim checks. There's nothing material I want very much. And I'm
going to give virtually all of those claim checks to charity when my
wife and I die.”
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“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin
it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.”
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“I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful
when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.”
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“Writing a check separates a commitment from a conversation.”
