The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Past, Profit, The Past
If you advertise an interest in buying collies, a lot of people will call hoping to sell you their cocker spaniels.
—Warren Buffett
The war on terrorism can never be won.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Terrorism
If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Change
I don’t worry about what I don’t know. I worry about being sure about what I do know.
—Warren Buffett
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Value, Values
When a management team with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Management, Business
It’s better to pay attention to something that is being scorned than something that’s being championed.
—Warren Buffett
I like to study failure. We want to see what has caused businesses to go bad, and the biggest thing that kills them is complacency.
—Warren Buffett
When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Ignorance
There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Human Nature, Humanity
Occasionally, a man must rise above principles.
—Warren Buffett
Bad habits are like chains that are too light to feel until they are too heavy to carry.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Habits
Managers thinking about accounting issues should never forget one of Abraham Lincoln’s favorite riddles: How many legs does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg? The answer: Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Management
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.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Management
I am a better investor because I am a businessman, and a better businessman because I am no investor.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Business
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Reputation, Wisdom, Entrepreneurs, Character
One’s objective should be to get it right, get it quick, get it out, and get it over… your problem won’t improve with age.
—Warren Buffett
The less the prudence with which others conduct their affairs, the greater the prudence with which we must conduct our own.
—Warren Buffett
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.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Opportunity
You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Success, Success & Failure
Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: General, Action
Charlie [Munger] realizes that it is difficult to find something that is really good. So, if you say ‘No’ ninety percent of the time, you’re not missing much in the world.
—Warren Buffett
We have embraced the 21st century by entering such cutting-edge industries as brick, carpet, insulation and paint. Try to control your excitement.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Future
The really desirable business is the one that doesn’t take any money to operate because it’s already proven that money will not enable anyone to get a position within the business. Those are the great businesses.
—Warren Buffett
Managers and investors alike must understand that accounting numbers are the beginning, not the end, of business valuation.
—Warren Buffett
A very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything but not enough to do nothing.
—Warren Buffett
I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Little Things, Things
It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Business
There’s no use running if you’re on the wrong road.
—Warren Buffett
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- George Soros Hungarian-American Investor
- Benjamin Graham American Investor
- Charlie Munger American Investor, Philanthropist
- Mohnish Pabrai Indian-American Investor, Philanthropist
- Henry R. Kravis American Businessman
- Guy Kawasaki American Investor
- Bill Gates American Businessperson
- David Rockefeller American Businessman, Philanthropist
- Harry Browne American Author, Economist
- Ray Dalio American Investor
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