Warren Buffett famous quotes

Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.
-- Warren Buffett

#Money #Business #Investing

In the financial markets I find it easy to predict what will happen and very difficult to predict when it will happen. I think that things were clear during the bubble as to what would happen eventually.
-- Warren Buffett

#Thinking #Financial #Easy

You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.
-- Warren Buffett

#Baby #Nine #Months

Confidence in markets and in institutions, it's a lot like oxygen. When you have it, you don't even think about it. It's indispensable. You can go years without thinking about it. When it's gone for five minutes, it's the only thing to think about.
-- Warren Buffett

#Thinking #Oxygen #Years

Our leaders have asked for 'shared sacrifice.' But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.
-- Warren Buffett

#Pain #Sacrifice #Leader

It is better to point out your own mistakes than have somebody else do it.
-- Warren Buffett

#Mistake

No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time.
-- Warren Buffett

#Effort #Matter #Talent

I look at everything. That's my job. I really do, every day. I think about everything.
-- Warren Buffett

#Jobs #Thinking #Looks

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
-- Warren Buffett

#Inspirational #Life #Motivational

There's nothing inappropriate about having debt in America. It's what helped us grow over time. And it's when debt gets out of control that you worry.
-- Warren Buffett

#America #Worry #Debt

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

#Inspirational #Inspiring #Success

I'm always interested in understanding the math of things and understanding as much as I can about all aspects of business. And what I learn today may be useful to me two years from now. That'sreally the wonderful thing about investments is your knowledge is cumulative.
-- Warren Buffett

#Math #Years #Two

If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.
-- Warren Buffett

#Sleep #Way #Making Money

Confidence is key. You're not going to put your money - you're not going to leave your money with me unless you're confident I'm going to give it back to you.
-- Warren Buffett

#Keys #Giving

Read 500 pages every day. That's how knowledge works. It builds up like compound interest.
-- Warren Buffett

#Pages #Interest #Working It

You can't stand to see your neighbor getting rich. You know you're smarter than he is and he's doing these things and he's getting rich.
-- Warren Buffett

#Rich #Neighbor #Get Rich

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
-- Warren Buffett

#Business #Inspiration #Intelligent

The truth is that I've got all my net worth safely in Berkshire and I will never sell a share so there is no one more concerned about what happens after my death than I am.
-- Warren Buffett

#Truth Is #Share #Concerned

Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.
-- Warren Buffett

#Life #Business #War

It's a big mistake to try and mislead people. They will turn around.
-- Warren Buffett

#Mistake #People #Trying

Honesty is a very expensive gift, Don't expect it from cheap people.
-- Warren Buffett

#Inspirational #Life #Honesty

The nature of democracy is such that when there's - there'll be revulsion, obviously, towards - that's never going to happen again.
-- Warren Buffett

#Democracy #Revulsion

The three most important words in investing...Margin of Safety.
-- Warren Buffett

#Safety #Important #Investing

If you expect to continue to purchase stocks throughout your life, you should welcome price declines as a way to add stocks more cheaply to your portfolio.
-- Warren Buffett

#Investing #Way #Portfolios

Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.
-- Warren Buffett

#Weapons #Derivatives #Investing

There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.
-- Warren Buffett

#War #Winning #Class

People always should know better. People don't get - they don't get smarter about things that get as basic as greed.
-- Warren Buffett

#People #Greed #Should

Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.
-- Warren Buffett

#Enemy #Investing #Looks

When people talk about cash being king, it's not king if it just sits there and never does anything.
-- Warren Buffett

#Kings #People #Doe

We continue to make more money when snoring than when active.
-- Warren Buffett

#Timing #More Money #Snoring

I have got this letter which actually goes out the day after I die. It has already been written. And it says that: "Yesterday I died". And then it says: "That's bad news for me, but it's not bad news for you, the shareholders of Berkshire". And then I go on and explain what is going to happen. I know that is one time when they will be really interested in hearing from me.
-- Warren Buffett

#Yesterday #Letters #Hearing

A CEO's behavior has a huge impact on managers down the line.
-- Warren Buffett

#Impact #Lines #Behavior

Look for companies with high profit margins.
-- Warren Buffett

#Looks #Investing #Profit

Do what you would do for free, having passion for what you do is the most important thing.
-- Warren Buffett

#Passion #Important #Passion For What You Do

If you want to shoot rare, fast-moving elephants, you should always carry a loaded gun.
-- Warren Buffett

#Moving #Gun #Elephants

Does the business have favourable long term prospects?
-- Warren Buffett

#Long #Investing #Doe

it's a good idea to review past mistakes before committing new ones.
-- Warren Buffett

#Mistake #Past #Ideas

In investing, just as in baseball, to put runs on the scoreboard, one must watch the playing field, not the scoreboard.
-- Warren Buffett

#Running #Baseball #Investing

Do not put all your eggs in one basket.
-- Warren Buffett

#Eggs #Eggs In One Basket #Baskets

A hyperactive stock market is the pickpocket of enterprise.
-- Warren Buffett

#Investing #Enterprise

Do not take yearly results too seriously. Instead, focus on four or five-year averages.
-- Warren Buffett

#Average #Years #Focus

Investing in yourself is the best thing you can do. If you've got talents, no one can take them from you.
-- Warren Buffett

#Investing #Talent

The key to success is emotional stability.
-- Warren Buffett

#Emotional #Keys #Key To Success

When forced to choose, I will not trade even a night's sleep for the chance of extra profits.
-- Warren Buffett

#Life #Sleep #Night

Optimism.. is the enemy of the rational buyer
-- Warren Buffett

#Optimism #Enemy #Saving

We don't have to be smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest.
-- Warren Buffett

#Intelligent #Investing

Never invest in a business you can't understand
-- Warren Buffett

#Business #Management #Economics

You have to understand accounting and you have to understand the nuances of accounting. It's the language of business and it's an imperfect language, but unless you are willing to put in the effort to learn accounting - how to read and interpret financial statements - you really shouldn't select stocks yourself
-- Warren Buffett

#Effort #Nuance #Language

The [stock] market,like the Lord, helps those who help themselves. But, unlike the Lord, the market does not forgive those who know not what they do.
-- Warren Buffett

#Forgiving #Doe #Helping

Successful Investing takes time, discipline and patience. No matter how great the talent or effort, some things just take time: You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.
-- Warren Buffett

#Baby #Successful #Discipline

Activity is the enemy of investment returns.
-- Warren Buffett

#Enemy #Return #Investment

You can't make a good deal with a bad person.
-- Warren Buffett

#Life #Generosity #Deals

It is more important to say "no" to an opportunity, than to say "yes".
-- Warren Buffett

#Opportunity #Important #Investing

We believe that according the name 'investors' to institutions that trade actively is like calling someone who repeatedly engages in one-night stands a 'romantic.'
-- Warren Buffett

#Believe #Romantic Love #Night

If you invested in a very low cost index fund - where you don't put the money in at one time, but average in over 10 years -you'll do better than 90% of people who start investing at the same time.
-- Warren Buffett

#Average #Years #People

Failure comes from ego, greed, envy, fear, imitation. I have success not because I am smart, but because I am rational.
-- Warren Buffett

#Smart #Envy #Gossip

I always knew I was going to be rich. I don't think I ever doubted it for a minute.
-- Warren Buffett

#War #Thinking #Insightful

The best thing that happens to us is when a great company gets into temporary trouble...We want to buy them when they're on the operating table.
-- Warren Buffett

#Business #Tables #Want

He must never forget Charlie's plea: Tell me where I'm going to die, so I'll never go there.
-- Warren Buffett

#One Line #Never Forget #Charlie

Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.
-- Warren Buffett

#Wall #People #Advice

The smartest side to take in a bidding war is the losing side.
-- Warren Buffett

#War #Sides #Bidding

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.
-- Warren Buffett

#People #Wells

Intensity is the price of excellence.
-- Warren Buffett

#Excellence #Intensity

Investing is laying out money now to get more money back in the future.
-- Warren Buffett

#Investing #More Money

You’d get very rich if you thought of yourself as having a card with only twenty punches in a lifetime, and every financial decision used up one punch. You’d resist the temptation to dabble. You’d make more good decisions and you’d make more big decisions.
-- Warren Buffett

#Decision #Temptation #Cards

Stop trying to predict the direction of the stock market, the economy or elections.
-- Warren Buffett

#Trying #Election #Economy

The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we'll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on.
-- Warren Buffett

#Hope #Money #Years

The thing to do is to keep your mind when the world around you is losing theirs.
-- Warren Buffett

#Mind #Relax #World

It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.
-- Warren Buffett

#Business #War #Insightful

Other guys read Playboy. I read annual reports.
-- Warren Buffett

#Guy #Annual Reports #Playboy

I try to buy stock in businesses that are so wonderful that an idiot can run them. Because sooner or later, one will.
-- Warren Buffett

#Running #Business #Trying

Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good results.
-- Warren Buffett

#Giving #Attractive #Results

We don't get paid for activity, just for being right. As to how long we'll wait, we'll wait indefinitely.
-- Warren Buffett

#Long #Waiting #Insightful

I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business.
-- Warren Buffett

#Life #Thinking #Generosity

I think you should read everything you can. In my case, by the age of 10, I'd read every book in the Omaha public library about investing, some twice. You need to fill your mind with various competing thoughts and decide which make sense.
-- Warren Buffett

#Book #Thinking #Mind

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

#Funny #Money #Business

I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life.
-- Warren Buffett

#Success #Business #Reading

If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
-- Warren Buffett

#Life #Change #Wise

Do not save what is left after spending, but spend what is left after saving.
-- Warren Buffett

#Saving #Spending

Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.
-- Warren Buffett

#Funny #Success #Money

The Stock Market is designed to transfer money from the Active to the Patient.
-- Warren Buffett

#Money #Patient #Active

Never be afraid to ask for too much when selling or offer too little when buying.
-- Warren Buffett

#Too Much #Buying #Littles

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.
-- Warren Buffett

#Life #War #Generosity

Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.
-- Warren Buffett

#Needs #Investment #Barbers

We will only do with your money what we would do with our own.
-- Warren Buffett

#Investing

Our favorite holding period is forever.
-- Warren Buffett

#Funny Inspirational #Business #War

Only buy something that you'd be perfectly happy to hold if the market shut down for 10 years.
-- Warren Buffett

#Inspirational #Success #Money

The one piece of advice I can give you is, do what turns you on. Do something that if you had all the money in the world, you’d still be doing it. You’ve got to have a reason to jump out of bed in the morning.
-- Warren Buffett

#Morning #Giving #Advice

People always ask me where they should go to work, and I always tell them to go to work for whom they admire the most.
-- Warren Buffett

#People #Should #Admire

I want to be able to explain my mistakes. This means I do only the things I completely understand.
-- Warren Buffett

#Mistake #Mean #Want

When people tell me they've learned from experience, I tell them the trick is to learn from other people's experience.
-- Warren Buffett

#Marriage #People #Tricks

Whether we’re talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down.
-- Warren Buffett

#Talking #Quality #Buying

In looking for people to hire, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you.
-- Warren Buffett

#Inspirational #Motivational #Education

Buy a business, don't rent stocks.
-- Warren Buffett

Learning how to live is much more important than learning how to make a living.
-- Warren Buffett

#Inspirational Life #Important

The dumbest reason in the world to buy a stock is because it's going up.
-- Warren Buffett

#World #Reason

Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill.
-- Warren Buffett

#Snow #Long #Important

I was lucky enough to be born in a time and place where society values my talent, and gave me a good education to develop that talent, and set up the laws and the finanical system to let me do what I love doing-and make a lot of money doing it. The least I can do is help pay for all that.
-- Warren Buffett

#Law #Pay #Lucky

If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.
-- Warren Buffett

#Business #War #Saving

Buy into a company because you want to own it, not because you want the stock to go up.
-- Warren Buffett

#Want #Company