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‘Never invest in a business you cannot understand.'
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‘Always invest for the long term.'
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‘Buy a business, don't rent stocks.'
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‘Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted
a tree a long time ago.'
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‘I really like my life. I've arranged my life so that I can
do what I want.'
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‘We will only do with your money what we would do with our
own.'
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‘If you don't feel comfortable owning something for 10 years,
then don't own it for 10 minutes.'
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‘I am a better investor because I am a businessman and a
better businessman because I am an investor.'
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‘Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.'
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‘The Stock Market is designed to transfer money from the
Active to the Patient.'
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‘Stop trying to predict the direction of the stock market,
the economy, interest rates, or elections.'
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‘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 ten years.'
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‘I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for
1-foot bars that I can step over.'
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‘For some reason, people take their cues from price action
rather than from values. What doesn't work is when you start doing things that
you don't understand or because they worked last week for somebody else. The
dumbest reason in the world to buy a stock is because it's going up.'
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‘We don't get paid for activity, just for being right. As to
how long we will wait, we'll wait indefinitely.'
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‘As Buffet said in the speech, “He's not looking at quarterly
earnings projections, he's not looking at next year's earnings, he's not
thinking about what day of the week it is, he doesn't care what investment
research from any place says, he's not interested in price momentum, volume or
anything. He's simply asking: What is the business worth?'
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‘Buy companies with strong histories of profitability and
with a dominant business franchise.'
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‘Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is.
The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can't buy what is popular
and do well.'
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‘When asked how he became so successful in investing, Buffett
answered: ‘we read hundreds and hundreds of annual reports every year.'
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‘When a management team with a reputation for brilliance
joins a business with poor fundamental economics, it is the reputation of the
business that remains intact.'
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‘Only those who will be sellers of equities in the near
future should be happy at seeing stocks rise. Prospective purchasers should
much prefer sinking prices.'
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‘Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes
very little sense for those who know what they're doing.'
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‘Wide diversification is only required when investors do not
understand what they are doing.'
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‘You're neither right nor wrong because other people agree
with you. You're right because your facts are right and your reasoning is right
– that's the only thing that makes you right. And if your facts and reasoning
are right, you don't have to worry about anybody else.'
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‘It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to
ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.'
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‘The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to
forget the first rule.'
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‘Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if
the market shut down for 10 years.'
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‘I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be
fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.'
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‘Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like?
As Mae West said, ‘Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.'
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‘Our favorite holding period is forever.'
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‘Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.'
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‘Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of
the mediocre.'
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‘Unless you can watch your stock holding decline by 50%
without becoming panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market.'
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‘The critical investment factor is determining the intrinsic
value of a business and paying a fair or bargain price.'
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‘Investors making purchases in an overheated market need to
recognize that it may often take an extended period for the value of even an
outstanding company to catch up with the price they paid.'
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‘Risk can be greatly reduced by concentrating on only a few
holdings.'
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‘It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get
extraordinary results.'
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‘An investor should ordinarily hold a small piece of an
outstanding business with the same tenacity that an owner would exhibit if he
owned all of that business.'
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‘Great investment opportunities come around when excellent
companies are surrounded by unusual circumstances that cause the stock to be
misappraised.'
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‘In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer
than the windshield.'
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‘If a business does well, the stock eventually
follows.'
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‘Cash never makes us happy, but it's better to have the money
burning a hole in Berkshire's pocket than resting comfortably in someone
else's.'
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‘A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.'
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‘I never buy anything unless I can fill out on a piece of
paper my reasons. I may be wrong, but I would know the answer to that. “I'm
paying $32 billion today for the Coca Cola Company because.” If you can't answer
that question, you shouldn't buy it. If you can answer that question, and you do
it a few times, you'll make a lot of money.'
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‘The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's
growth.'
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‘You only have to do a very few things right in your life so
long as you don't do too many things wrong.'
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‘It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price
than a fair company at a wonderful price.'
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‘You ought to be able to explain why you're taking the job
you're taking, why you're making the investment you're making, or whatever it
may be. And if it can't stand applying pencil to paper, you'd better think it
through some more. And if you can't write an intelligent answer to those
questions, don't do it.'
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‘Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your
enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.'
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‘An investor needs to do very few things right as long as he
or she avoids big mistakes.'