If you advertise an interest in buying collies, a lot of people will call hoping to sell you their cocker spaniels.
—Warren Buffett
There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Humanity, Human Nature
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 only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.
—Warren Buffett
Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Risk
I am a better investor because I am a businessman, and a better businessman because I am no investor.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Business
We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Pleasure
Managers and investors alike must understand that accounting numbers are the beginning, not the end, of business valuation.
—Warren Buffett
The perfect amount of money to leave children is enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they would do nothing.
—Warren Buffett
Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good results.
—Warren Buffett
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 & Failure, Success
A horse that can count to 10 is a remarkable horse—not a remarkable mathematician.
—Warren Buffett
It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.
—Warren Buffett
When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is usually the reputation of the business that remains intact.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Business, Management
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
I really like my life. I’ve arranged my life so that I can do what I want.
—Warren Buffett
If I ever write a book it will be called, Why Smart People Do Dumb Things. My partner says it should be autobiographical.
—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
Time is the friend of the wonderful business, the enemy of the mediocre.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Patience
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
The only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune tellers look good.
—Warren Buffett
If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Change
The rich invest in time; the poor invest in money.
—Warren Buffett
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: Business, Management
The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Profit, Past, The Past
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
The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.
—Warren Buffett
If you can tell me who your heroes are, I can tell you how you’re going to turn out in life.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: Life
Occasionally, a man must rise above principles.
—Warren Buffett
Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
—Warren Buffett
Topics: General, Action
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 Politician
Ray Dalio American Investor