Warren Buffett (b.1930) is an American investor, businessman, financier, and philanthropist. As chairman, CEO, and principal shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, a financial and industrial conglomerate that he has led since 1964, Buffett is one of the world’s wealthiest people.
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, where he grew up and continues to reside, Buffett is affectionately known to many as the “Oracle of Omaha.” He is an incredibly successful investor whose string of successes cannot be attributed to a stroke of luck. Throughout his long career, he has been made money with diverse investment strategies, but with a core philosophy that has remained unchanged—analyzing businesses, not just their stocks, and then buying stock in companies when their stock prices are down relative to intrinsic value.
As leaders of the American conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett and his longtime business partner, Charlie Munger, have earned enormous respect as brilliant investors. They oversee a vast empire of a sophisticated, sprawling collection of businesses and investments.
Buffett is one of the wealthiest persons in the world, and one of the world’s leading philanthropists. Despite his colossal wealth, he is the antithesis of an ostentatious billionaire—he lives parsimoniously, drives a humble car, and still resides in the unpretentious home he bought in 1958 for $31,500. In 2006, he announced plans to give 83 percent of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Warren Buffett
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: Entrepreneurs, Wisdom, Character, Reputation
Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Action, General
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
Great investment opportunities come around when excellent companies are surrounded by unusual circumstances that cause the stock to be misappraised.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Opportunity
The much-maligned idle rich have received a bad rap: They have maintained their wealth while many There is scarcely an instance of a man who has made a fortune by speculation and kept it. Andrew Carnegie of the energetic rich, aggressive real estate operators, corporate acquirers, oil drillers, etc. have their fortunes disappear.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Riches
The less the prudence with which others conduct their affairs, the greater the prudence with which we must conduct our own.
—Warren Buffett
First come the innovators, then come the imitators, then come the idiots.
—Warren Buffett
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.
—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
I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Money
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.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Journalism
Occasionally, a man must rise above principles.
—Warren Buffett
There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Human Nature, Humanity
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
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Values, Value
It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.
—Warren Buffett
It’s never a good idea to wait to do anything; given the uncertainty of life, just get going.
—Warren Buffett
Managers and investors alike must understand that accounting numbers are the beginning, not the end, of business valuation.
—Warren Buffett
Our favorite holding period is forever.
—Warren Buffett
Can you really explain to a fish what it’s like to walk on land? One day on land is worth a thousand years of talking about it, and one day running a business has exactly the same kind of value.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Experience
Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it’s not going to get the business.
—Warren Buffett
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
The war on terrorism can never be won.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Terrorism
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
When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Ignorance
If you don’t know jewelry, know the jeweler.
—Warren Buffett
The rich invest in time; the poor invest in money.
—Warren Buffett
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
We don’t get paid for activity, just for being right. As to how long we’ll wait, we’ll wait indefinitely.
—Warren Buffett
I really like my life. I’ve arranged my life so that I can do what I want.
—Warren Buffett
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