American businessman & investor (1930- )
In looking for someone to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. But the most important is integrity, because if they don't have that, the other two qualities, intelligence and energy, are going to kill you.
WARREN BUFFET
The Tao of Warren Buffet
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!"
WARREN BUFFETT
The Motley Fool, March 26, 2003
Price is what you pay and value is what you get.
WARREN BUFFETT
attributed, Warren Buffett Wealth
Success in investing doesn't correlate with I.Q. once you're above the level of 25. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.
WARREN BUFFETT
interview, BusinessWeek, June 25, 1999
It's an election year, and candidates can't stop speaking about our country's problems (which, of course, only they can solve). As a result of this negative drumbeat, many Americans now believe that their children will not live as well as they themselves do. That view is dead wrong: The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history. American GDP per capita is now about $56,000.... That -- in real terms -- is a staggering six times the amount in 1930, the year I was born, a leap far beyond the wildest dreams of my parents or their contemporaries. U. S. citizens are not intrinsically more intelligent today, nor do they work harder than did Americans in 1930. Rather, they work far more efficiently and thereby produce more. This all-powerful trend is certain to continue: America's economic magic remains alive and well.
WARREN BUFFETT
annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, February 2016
I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.
WARREN BUFFETT
lecture at Columbia University
Rule No. 1: Never lose money.
Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1.
WARREN BUFFET
The Tao of Warren Buffet
Too often, though, investors forget to examine the assumptions behind the models. Beware of geeks bearing formulas.
WARREN BUFFETT
attributed, Family Wealth Management
Only buy something that you would be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for ten years.
WARREN BUFFETT
Business World, 1987
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 -- that is, continuing to speculate in companies that have gigantic valuations relative to the cash they are likely to generate in the future -- 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
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman's Letter, 2000
If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
WARREN BUFFETT
The Tao of Warren Buffett
Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.
WARREN BUFFETT
attributed, Investopedia
When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.
WARREN BUFFETT
The Motley Fool, September 20, 2012
I could end the deficit in five minutes. You just pass a law that says that any time there's a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.
WARREN BUFFETT
interview, CNBC, 1 July 2011
You're dealing with a lot of silly people in the marketplace; it's like a great big casino and everyone else is boozing. If you can stick with Pepsi, you should be O.K.
WARREN BUFFETT
interview, Forbes, November 1, 1974
I made my first investment at age eleven. I was wasting my life up until then.
WARREN BUFFETT
The Tao of Warren Buffet
I make no attempt to forecast the general market -- my efforts are devoted to finding undervalued securities.
WARREN BUFFETT
letter to shareholders, 2 November 1959
Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
WARREN BUFFETT
attributed, Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett
In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
WARREN BUFFETT
Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letter, 2005
Gold is a way of going long on fear, and it has been a pretty good way of going long on fear from time to time. But you really have to hope people become more afraid in a year or two years than they are now. And if they become more afraid you make money, if they become less afraid you lose money, but the gold itself doesn't produce anything.
WARREN BUFFETT
attributed, Banking on Confidence: A Guidebook to Financial Literacy