Warren Buffett

A great investment opportunity occurs when a marvelous business encounters a one-time huge, but solvable problem.

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

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

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.

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

I bought a company in the mid-'90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I've made lots of dumb decisions. That's part of the game.

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.

Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire you look for three qualities integrity intelligence and energy. And if you dont have the first the other two will kill you. You think about it its true. If you hire somebody without integrity you really want them to be dumb and lazy.

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.

Enjoy your work and work for whom you admire.

I sent one e-mail in my life. I sent it to Jeff Raikes at Microsoft, and it ended up in court in Minneapolis, so I am one for one.

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

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.

Unless you can watch your stock holding decline by 50% without becoming panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market.

Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.

Basically, when you get to my age, you'll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

Knowing what to leave out is just as important as knowing what to focus on.

Managers and investors alike must understand that accounting numbers are the beginning, not the end, of business valuation.

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

Outstanding long-term results are produced primarily by avoiding dumb decisions, rather than by making brilliant ones.

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

We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.

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

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

I would say the most satisfying thing actually is watching my three children each pick up on their own interests and work many more hours per week than most people that have jobs at trying to intelligently give away that money in fields that they particularly care about.

Wealth is having enough. That means to some people, no matter how much they have, they can't really be wealthy because they want more than they've got.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

You have to understand accounting and you have to understand the nuances of accounting. It's the language of business and it's an imperfect language, but unless you are willing to put in the effort to learn accounting - how to read and interpret financial statements - you really shouldn't select stocks yourself.

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.

The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say 'no' to almost everything.

I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.

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.

Investing in yourself is the best thing you can do. If you've got talents, no one can take them from you.

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

Occasionally, a man must rise above principles.

The ability to say no is a tremendous advantage for an investor.

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.

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

Investing is forgoing consumption now in order to have the ability to consume more at a later date.

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

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.

Everybodys got a different circle of competence. The important thing is not how big the circle is. The important thing is staying inside the circle.

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.'

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

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.

The best jockey in the world is never going to win races riding a lame horse. But even a mediocre jockey can win races riding a champion.

Accounting is the language of business.

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

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

I think that both parties should declare the debt limit as a political weapon of mass destruction which can't be used. I mean, it is silly to have a country that has 237 years building up its reputation and then have people threaten to tear it down because they're not getting some other matter.

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

You dont ever ask a barber whether you need a haircut.

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.

If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.

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.

Beware of geeks bearing formulas.

Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill.

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

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.

Unfortunately the hangover may prove to be proportional to the binge.

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

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.

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

We make investment decisions based on our evaluation of the most profitable combination of probabilities.

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

There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.

Its far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.

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.

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

If you want to soar like an eagle in life, you can't be flocking with the turkeys.

Never depend on single income. Make investments to create a second source.

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.

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

Investing requires qualities of temperament way more than it requires qualities of intellect.

Investing is laying out money now to get more money back in the future.

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

When bills come due only cash is legal tender. Dont leave home without it.

it's a good idea to review past mistakes before committing new ones.

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

When people talk about cash being king its not king if it just sits there and never does anything.

Making money isnt the backbone of our guiding purpose it is the by product of our guiding purpose.

The smartest side to take in a bidding war is the losing side.

The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging.

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.

Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.

Investing in a market where people believe in efficiency is like playing bridge with someone who has been told it doesn't do any good to look at the cards.

Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.

Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful

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.

The rich invest in time, the poor invest in money.

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

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

The key to success is emotional stability.

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

We also believe candour benefits us as managers. The CEO who misleads often in public eventually misleads himself in private.