People calculate too much and think too little.
—Charlie Munger
Well, some of our success we predicted and some of it was fortuitous.
—Charlie Munger
When you borrow a man’s car, always return it with a tank of gas.
—Charlie Munger
Generally speaking, there’s more felicity to be gained… from reducing expectations than in any other way.
—Charlie Munger
I agree with Peter Drucker that the culture and legal systems of the United States are especially favorable to shareholder interests, compared to other interests and compared to most other countries. Indeed, there are many other countries where any good going to public shareholders has a very low priority and almost every other constituency stands higher in line.
—Charlie Munger
Go to bed smarter than when you woke up.
—Charlie Munger
There’s integrity, intelligence, experience and dedication. That’s what human enterprises need to run well.
—Charlie Munger
Today, it seems to be regarded as the duty of CEOs to make the stock go up. This leads to all sorts of foolish behavior. We want to tell it like it is.
—Charlie Munger
No wise pilot, no matter how great his talent and experience, fails to use his checklist.
—Charlie Munger
Gold is a great thing to sew into your garments if you’re a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939, but I think civilized people don’t buy gold, they invest in productive businesses.
—Charlie Munger
Like Warren, I had a considerable passion to get rich, not because I wanted Ferrari’s—I wanted the independence. I desperately wanted it.
—Charlie Munger
Being an effective teacher is a high calling.
—Charlie Munger
There’s danger in just shoveling out money to people who say, ‘My life is a little harder than it used to be.’ At a certain place you’ve got to say to the people, ‘Suck it in and cope, buddy. Suck it in and cope.’
—Charlie Munger
The best thing a human being can do is to help another human being know more.
—Charlie Munger
Smart people aren’t exempt from professional disasters from overconfidence. Often, they just run aground in the more difficult voyages they choose, relying on their self-appraisals that they have superior talents and methods.
—Charlie Munger
‘One solution fits all’ is not the way to go. All these cultures are different. The right culture for the Mayo Clinic is different from the right culture at a Hollywood movie studio. You can’t run all these places with a cookie-cutter solution.
—Charlie Munger
The number one idea is to view a stock as an ownership of the business and to judge the staying quality of the business in terms of its competitive advantage. Look for more value in terms of discounted future cash-flow than you are paying for. Move only when you have an advantage.
—Charlie Munger
If only I had the influence with my wife and children that I have in some other quarters!
—Charlie Munger
Acknowledging what you don’t know is the dawning of wisdom.
—Charlie Munger
Develop into a lifelong self-learner through voracious reading; cultivate curiosity and strive to become a little wiser every day.
—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
Being rational is a moral imperative. You should never be stupider than you need to be.
—Charlie Munger
It takes character to sit there with all that cash and do nothing. I didn’t get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities.
—Charlie Munger
The liabilities are always 100 percent good. It’s the assets you have to worry about.
—Charlie Munger
All intelligent investing is value investing—acquiring more than you are paying for. You must value the business in order to value the stock.
—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
There isn’t a single formula. You need to know a lot about business and human nature and the numbers… It is unreasonable to expect that there is a magic system that will do it for you.
—Charlie Munger
Good character is very efficient. If you can trust people, your system can be way simpler. There’s enormous efficiency in good character and dis-efficiency in bad character.
—Charlie Munger
Intelligent people make decisions based on opportunity costs.
—Charlie Munger
You need a different checklist and mental models for different companies. I can never make it easy by saying, ‘Here are three things.’ You have to derive it yourself to ingrain it in your head for the rest of your life.
—Charlie Munger
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Warren Buffett American Investor
- Mohnish Pabrai Indian-American Investor, Philanthropist
- Ray Dalio American Investor
- Henry R. Kravis American Businessman
- T. Boone Pickens American Businessman, Financier
- David Rockefeller American Businessman, Philanthropist
- Peter Thiel American Entrepreneur
- Jesse Lauriston Livermore American Investor
- Richard Rainwater American Investor
- George Soros Hungarian-American Investor
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