Warren Buffett Quotes

1. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.


2. Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

3. Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.

4. 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.

5. 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.





6. 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.

7. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.





8. Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.

9. I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted it for a minute.

10. 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.



11. Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.

12. 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.

13. I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.

14. 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.

15. Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.

16. Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.

17. I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.

18. Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.

19. In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

20. A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.





21. The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.

22. 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.

23. 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.


24. When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.

25. 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.

26. If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.

27. We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.

28. 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.

29. Beware of geeks bearing formulas.



30. There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.

31. You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.

32. Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.



33. 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.

34. 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.

35. The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.

36. 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.




37. Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.

38. 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.

39. We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.

40. It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.

41. 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.

42. 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."


43. We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.

44. The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth.

45. 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.

46. Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.


47. Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business.


48. Our favorite holding period is forever.

49. 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.

50. 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.

51. If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.


52. Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.


53. Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

54. It's never paid to bet against America. We come through things, but its not always a smooth ride.

55. Risk is a part of God's game, alike for men and nations.

56. I think the most important factor in getting out of the recession actually is just the regenerative capacity of American capitalism.

57. Value is what you get.

58. The only time to buy these is on a day with no "y" in it.

59. We're still in a recession. We're not gonna be out of it for a while, but we will get out.

60. 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.

61. Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said: "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful".

62. 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.

63. The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don't have to swing at everything - you can wait for your pitch. The problem when you're a money manager is that your fans keep yelling: "Swing, you bum!"

64. 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.

65. 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.



66. 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.

67. 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.

68. 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.

69. 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.



70. I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will.

71. I am a better investor because I am a businessman, and a better businessman because I am no investor.








72. 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.


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