Quote collection
959 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I look for businesses in which I think I can predict what they're going to look like in ten to fifteen years time. Take Wrigley's chewing gum. I don't think the internet is going to change how people chew gum."
"There's no use running if you're on the wrong road."
"The great personal fortunes in the country weren't built on a portfolio of fifty companies. They were built by someone who identified one wonderful business. With each investment you make, you should have the courage and the conviction to place at least 10% of your net worth in that stock."
"Investors... can't pick stocks that are better than average. Stocks are a good thing to own over time. There's only two things you can do wrong: You can buy the wrong ones, and you can buy or sell them at the wrong time. And the truth is you never need to sell them."
"If you know how to value businesses, it's crazy to own 50 stocks or 40 stocks or 30 stocks, probably because there aren't that many wonderful businesses understandable to a single human being in all likelihood. To forego buying more of some super-wonderful business and instead put your money into #30 or #35 on your list of attractiveness just strikes Charlie and me as madness."
"Success is having people love you that you want to have love you."
"Risk can be greatly reduced by concentrating on only a few holdings."
"To invest successfully, you need not understand beta, efficient markets, modern portfolio theory, option pricing or emerging markets. You may, in fact, be better off knowing nothing of these. That, of course, is not the prevailing view at most business schools, whose finance curriculum tends to be dominated by such subjects. In our view, though, investment students need only two well-taught courses - How to Value a Business, and How to Think About Market Prices."
"No formula in finance tells you that the moat is 28 feet wide and 16 feet deep. That's what drives the academics crazy. They can compute standard deviations and betas, but they can't understand moats."
"We're perfectly willing to trade away a big payoff for a certain payoff."
"I've made money over the years by buying into good companies, run by good people, at attractive prices. And I don't try and make it out of buying into the market at one point and selling at another point."
"Inactivity strikes us as intelligent behavior."
"To win, the first thing you have to do is not lose."
"Money will always flow toward opportunity, and there is an abundance of that in America."
"Investment must be rational; if you can't understand it, don't do it."
"Enjoy your work and work for whom you admire."
"What's hot today isn't likely to be hot tomorrow. The stock market reverts to fundamental returns over the long run. Don't follow the herd."
"The real fortunes in this country have been made by people who have been right about the business they invested in, and not right about the timing of the stock market."
"It's never paid to bet against America."
"I tell college students, when you get to be my age you will be successful if the people who you hope to have love you, do love you."