Inspirational Quotes by Charlie Munger (American Investor, Philanthropist)

I would rather throw a viper down my shirt than hire a compensation consultant.
—Charlie Munger

The only duty of the corporate executive is to widen the moat… There are times when it is too tough. But the duty should be to widen the moat. I can see instance after instance where that isn’t what people do in business. One must keep their eye on the ball of widening the moat, to be a steward of the competitive advantage that came to you.
—Charlie Munger

I think it’s generally a mistake to assume that rationality is going to be perfect even in very able people. I think hubris contributes to it.
—Charlie Munger

We’ve got great flexibility and a certain discipline in terms of not doing some foolish thing just to be active—discipline in avoiding just doing any damn thing just because you can’t stand inactivity.
—Charlie Munger

You want to be very careful with intense ideology. It presents a big danger for the only mind you’re ever going to get.
—Charlie Munger

Wall Street has too much wealth and political power.
—Charlie Munger

Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.
—Charlie Munger

You must have the confidence to override people with more credentials than you whose cognition is impaired by incentive-caused bias or some similar psychological force that is obviously present. But there are also cases where you have to recognize that you have no wisdom to add — and that your best course is to trust some expert.
—Charlie Munger

I think track records are very important. If you start early trying to have a perfect one in some simple thing like honesty, you’re well on your way to success in this world.
—Charlie Munger

A lot of success in life and business comes from knowing what you want to avoid: early death, a bad marriage, etc.
—Charlie Munger

There are some things you should pay up for, like quality businesses and people.
—Charlie Munger

If you don’t allow for self-serving bias in the conduct of others, you are, again, a fool.
—Charlie Munger

Mankind invented a system to cope with the fact that we are so intrinsically lousy at manipulating numbers. It’s call the graph.
—Charlie Munger

What’s the best way to get a good spouse? The best single way is to deserve a good spouse because a good spouse is by definition not nuts.
—Charlie Munger

You’re looking for a mispriced gamble. That’s what investing is. And you have to know enough to know whether the gamble is mispriced. That’s value investing.
—Charlie Munger

Most people are too fretful, they worry too much. Success means being very patient, but aggressive when it’s time.
—Charlie Munger

The best armor of old age is a well-spent life preceding it.
—Charlie Munger

Over the very long term, history shows that the chances of any business surviving in a manner agreeable to a company’s owners are slim at best.
—Charlie Munger

Being an effective teacher is a high calling.
—Charlie Munger

There is no better teacher than history in determining the future… There are answers worth billions of dollars in $30 history book.
—Charlie Munger

We use a lot of experience and do it [investment returns] in our heads. We don’t like complexity and we distrust other systems and think it many times leads to false confidence. The harder you work, the more confidence you get. But you may be working hard on something that is false. We’re so afraid of that process so we don’t do it.
—Charlie Munger

People underrate the importance of a few simple big ideas. And I think to the extent Berkshire Hathaway is a didactic enterprise teaching the right systems of thought, the chief lesson is that a few big ideas really work. I think these filters of ours have worked pretty well-because they are so simple.
—Charlie Munger

We all are learning, modifying, or destroying ideas all the time. Rapid destruction of your ideas when the time is right is one of the most valuable qualities you can acquire. You must force yourself to consider arguments on the other side. If you can’t state arguments against what you believe better than your detractors, you don’t know enough.
—Charlie Munger

If all you succeed in doing in life is getting rich by buying little pieces of paper, it’s a failed life. Life is more than being shrewd in wealth accumulation.
—Charlie Munger

Understanding how to be a good investor makes you a better business manager and vice versa.
—Charlie Munger

There are always people who will be better at something than you are. You have to learn to be a follower before you become a leader.
—Charlie Munger

I have a habit in life. I observe what works and what doesn’t and why.
—Charlie Munger

It’s a good habit to trumpet your failures and be quiet about your successes.
—Charlie Munger

I won’t bet $100 against house odds between now and the grave.
—Charlie Munger

I’m a great believer in solving hard problems by using a checklist. You need to get all the likely and unlikely answers before you; otherwise it’s easy to miss something important.
—Charlie Munger

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