Warren Buffett Quotations

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

In the 20th century, the United States endured two world wars and other traumatic and expensive military conflicts; the Depression; a dozen or so recessions and financial panics; oil shocks; a flu epidemic; and the resignation of a disgraced president. Yet the Dow rose from 66 to 11,497.

Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.

Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.

Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

The first rule is not to lose. The second rule is not to forget the first rule.

We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful.

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

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked.

I just think that - when a country needs more income and we do, we're only taking in 15 percent of GDP, I mean, that - that - when a country needs more income, they should get it from the people that have it.

The only time to buy these is on a day with no 'y' in it.

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

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

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

I would say the most satisfying thing actually is watching my three children each pick up on their own interests and work many more hours per week than most people that have jobs at trying to intelligently give away that money in fields that they particularly care about.

You know, people talk about this being an uncertain time. You know, all time is uncertain. I mean, it was uncertain back in - in 2007, we just didn't know it was uncertain. It was - uncertain on September 10th, 2001. It was uncertain on October 18th, 1987, you just didn't know it.

Basically, when you get to my age, you'll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

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.

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

Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn't. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value.

I am quite serious when I say that I do not believe there are, on the whole earth besides, so many intensified bores as in these United States. No man can form an adequate idea of the real meaning of the word, without coming here.

There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.

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.

If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end - people like myself - should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it.

I sent one e-mail in my life. I sent it to Jeff Raikes at Microsoft, and it ended up in court in Minneapolis, so I am one for one.

Americans are in a cycle of fear which leads to people not wanting to spend and not wanting to make investments, and that leads to more fear. We'll break out of it. It takes time.

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

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

Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business.

I buy expensive suits. They just look cheap on me.

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.

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.

We've used up a lot of bullets. And we talk about stimulus. But the truth is, we're running a federal deficit that's 9 percent of GDP. That is stimulative as all get out. It's more stimulative than any policy we've followed since World War II.

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.

The only way to get love is to be lovable. It's very irritating if you have a lot of money. You'd like to think you could write a check: "I'll buy a million dollars' worth of love." But it doesn't work that way. The more you give love away, the more you get.

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.'

The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth.

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.

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.

Economic medicine that was previously meted out by the cupful has recently been dispensed by the barrel. These once unthinkable dosages will almost certainly bring on unwelcome after-effects. Their precise nature is anyone's guess, though one likely consequence is an onslaught of inflation.

Time is the friend of the wonderful company, the enemy of the mediocre.

There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we've got a system that allows them to do it.

We're still in a recession. We're not gonna be out of it for a while, but we will get out.

Why not invest your assets in the companies you really like? As Mae West said, 'Too much of a good thing can be wonderful'.

I am a huge bull on this country. We will not have a double-dip recession at all. I see our businesses coming back almost across the board.

I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.

The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.

Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

I think the most important factor in getting out of the recession actually is just the regenerative capacity of - of American capitalism.

We enjoy the process far more than the proceeds.

We always live in an uncertain world. What is certain is that the United States will go forward over time.

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.

Risk is a part of God's game, alike for men and nations.

If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.

You have no ability, if you're a financial institution and you're threatened with criminal prosecution, you have no ability to negotiate.

The best thing I did was to choose the right heroes.

The big question about how people behave is whether they've got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard.

It's never paid to bet against America. We come through things, but its not always a smooth ride.

If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don't care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.

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

I bought a company in the mid-'90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I've made lots of dumb decisions. That's part of the game.

I think it is a marvelous way to keep directors' interests and shareholders interests as closely aligned as possible, with both an upside and a downside component. Too often, people talk about interests being aligned when the directors get the upside and shareholders get the downside.

The 3 percent overall federal tax rate I would pay -- if a Berkshire dividend were to be tax free -- seems a bit light.

Today's equity prices presage only modest returns for investors,

The policies that we're following are likely to lead to a weaker dollar over a long period of years. It's not a forecast for next week, or next month or even next year.

Two rules:1. Preserve the principal2. When in doubt see Rule #1

You have to learn to understand your partner, to be tolerant, sympathetic, encouraging. Those are skills that are not bad to have in life.

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, isn't it fair to say that if we did have an opinion, we wouldn't tell him?

Berkshire's board has fully discussed each of the three CEO candidates and has unanimously agreed on the person who should succeed me if a replacement were needed today. The directors know now - and will always know in the future - exactly what they will do when the need arises.

I've never seen a system as good as Coke has now.

Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.

Right now, the rest of the world owns $3 trillion US more of us than we own of them.

Now it's $200 billion. If we don't change the course, the rest of the world could own $15 trillion of us. That's pretty substantial. That's equal to the value of all American stock.

Despite the lack of precedent, a negative coupon security seemed possible in the present interest rate environment ... I asked Goldman Sachs to create such an instrument and they responded promptly with the innovative security being announced today.

An educational approach to money and investing struck me as a very good idea. People do form behavior habits very young on matters of money. I get calls every day from people who are in a financial hole.

The burden of paying Helpers may cause American equity investors, overall, to earn only 80 percent or so of what they would earn if they just sat still and listened to no one.

You need an outstanding manager - you can define that in many ways... but you are looking for the best player out there. We are looking for the best player in this kind of business in the world.

Eddie is a very smart guy, but putting Kmart and Sears together is a tough hand.

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.

If you have a new son or grandson in 2006, name him Tony.

I recently sold a house in Laguna for $3.5 million. It was on about 2,000 square feet of land, maybe a twentieth of an acre, and the house might cost about $500,000 if you wanted to replace it. So the land sold for something like $60 million an acre.

I am a bull on sterling versus the U.S. dollar.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

I have an 800 [freephone] number now that I call if I get the urge to buy an airline stock. I call at two in the morning and I say: "My name is Warren and I'm an aeroholic." And then they talk me down.

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

Time is your friend, impulse is your enemy. Take advantage of compound interest and don't be captivated by the siren song of the market.

I don't need 15 houses. Owning real estate doesn't mean much to me. I don't like to think about things like that. I don't need 12 boats, or even the world's largest boat with a crew of 80. I'd have to take care of them, to worry about them. I get a lot more fun out of life without all the bells and whistles.

My job is essentially just corralling more and more and more facts and information, and occasionally seeing whether that leads to some action.

I have a wonderful family. I have a job that I love and wonderful people who help me with it. It can't get any better than that.