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Warren Buffett
113 quotes
“I call investing the greatest business in the world ... because you never have to swing. You stand at the plate, the pitcher throws you General Motors at 47! U.S. Steel at 39! and nobody calls a strike on you. There's no penalty except opportunity lost. All day you wait for the pitch you like; then when the fielders are asleep, you step up and hit it.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview in Forbes magazine (1 November 1974)
“In my view, for most people, the best thing to do is to own the S&P 500 index fund. People will try and sell you other things because there’s more money in it for them if they do. And I’m not saying that that’s a conscious act on their part. Most good salespeople believe their own baloney.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2020 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting
“You're dealing with a lot of silly people in the marketplace; it's like a great big casino and everyone else is boozing. If you can stick with Pepsi, you should be O.K.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On being dispassionate and patient in investments, in an interview in Forbes magazine (1 November 1974); he is contrasting soft-drinks to intoxicating beverages in this example; Buffett eventually became a major investo…
“Draw a circle around the businesses you understand and then eliminate those that fail to qualify on the basis of value, good management and limited exposure to hard times. ... Buy into a company because you want to own it, not because you want the stock to go up. ... People have been successful investors because they've stuck with successful companies. Sooner or later the market mirrors the business.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview in Forbes magazine (1 November 1974)
“Love is the greatest advantage a parent can give.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1986 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Should You Leave It All to the Children?" by Richard I. Kirkland Jr, in Fortune (29 September 1986)
“I'll tell you why I like the cigarette business. ... It costs a penny to make. Sell it for a dollar. It's addictive. And there's fantastic brand loyalty.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Barbarians at the Gate : The Fall of RJR Nabisco (1989), by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement of January 1991, as quoted in Of Permanent Value: The Story of Warren Buffett (2007) by Andrew Kilpatrick
“Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good results.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist (1995), by Roger Lowenstein, p. 77
“I like thinking big. I always have. To me it's very simple: if you're going to be thinking anyway, you might as well think big.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist (1995), by Roger Lowenstein, p. 77
“It's a game of a million inferences. There are a lot of things to draw inferences from — cards played and not played. These inferences tell you something about the probabilities. It's got to be the best intellectual exercise out there. You're seeing through new situations every ten minutes. Bridge is about weighing gain/loss ratios. You're doing calculations all the time.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the game of bridge, as quoted in Forbes (2 June 1997); also quoted in The Warren Buffett Portfolio: Mastering the Power of the Focus Investment Strategy (2000), p. 112
“If you understood a business perfectly and the future of the business, you would need very little in the way of a margin of safety. So, the more vulnerable the business is, assuming you still want to invest in it, the larger margin of safety you'd need. If you're driving a truck across a bridge that says it holds 10,000 pounds and you've got a 9,800 pound vehicle, if the bridge is 6 inches above the crevice it covers, you may feel okay, but if it's over the Grand Canyon, you may feel you want a little larger margin of safety...”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1615 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1997 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, as quoted in Of Permanent Value : The Story of Warren Buffett, by Andrew Kilpatrick, Vol. 2 (2007), p. 1615
“Wall Street is the only place that people ride to work in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Money Adventure (1998) by Egbert Sukop, p. 128
“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.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1998 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, as quoted in The Essays of Warren Buffett : Lessons for Corporate America (1998), p. 92
“We don't get paid for activity, just for being right. As to how long we'll wait, we'll wait indefinitely.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1998 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, quoted in Wait: The Art and Science of Delay (2012) by Frank Partnoy, p. 177
“Success in investing doesn't correlate with I.Q. once you're above the level of 125. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Homespun Wisdom from the "Oracle of Omaha" by Amy Stone in BusinessWeek (5 June 1999)
“If I was running $1 million today, or $10 million for that matter, I'd be fully invested. Anyone who says that size does not hurt investment performance is selling. The highest rates of return I've ever achieved were in the 1950s. I killed the Dow. You ought to see the numbers. But I was investing peanuts then. It's a huge structural advantage not to have a lot of money. I think I could make you 50% a year on $1 million. No, I know I could. I guarantee that.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Wisdom from the 'Oracle of Omaha'" by Amy Stone in BusinessWeek (5 June 1999)
“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 (born 1930) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: BusinessWeek,5 July 1999)
“We're more comfortable in that kind of business. It means we miss a lot of very big winners. But we wouldn't know how to pick them out anyway. It also means we have very few big losers - and that's quite helpful over time. We're perfectly willing to trade away a big payoff for a certain payoff.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1999 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, as quoted in "Why Won't Buffett Invest in Tech Stocks?" at Motley Fool (6 March 2000)
“I wouldn't mind going to jail if I had three cellmates who played bridge. ... The approach and strategies [of bridge and stock investing] are very similar. In the stock market you do not base your decisions on what the market is doing, but on what you think is rational. With bridge, you need to adhere to a disciplined bidding system. While there is no one best system, there is one that works best for you. Once you choose a system, you need to stick with it.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The Warren Buffett Portfolio: Mastering the Power of the Focus Investment Strategy (2000), p. 112, and Think, Act, and Invest Like Warren Buffett: The Winning Strategy to Help You Achieve Your Financial and Li…
“A very low cost index fund where you don't put in all your money at one time ... If you accumulate a low cost index fund over 10 years ... with fairly regular sums, I think you will probably do better than 90% of the people around you that take up investing at a similar time.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's class warfare. My class is winning, but they shouldn't be.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Lou Dobbs on CNN (25 May 2005)
“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 (born 1930) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Corporate Survival: The Critical Importance of Sustainability Risk Management (2005) by Dan Robert Anderson, p. 138
“You couldn't advance in a finance department in this country unless you taught that the world was flat.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "The Heresy That Made Them Rich" by Joseph Nocera, in The New York Times (29 October 2005)
“The 400 of us pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies, for that matter. If you're in the luckiest 1 percent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 percent.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking at a political fundraiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton in New York, as quoted in Henry Goldman, "Buffett, at Clinton Fund-Raiser, Says Congress Favors the Rich" in Bloomberg (27 June 2007)
“People will always try to stop you doing the right thing if it is unconventional.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "My $650,100 Lunch with Warren Buffett" by Guy Spier, in TIME (30 June 2008)
“You want to be greedy when others are fearful. You want to be fearful when others are greedy. It's that simple. ... They're pretty fearful. In fact, in my adult lifetime, I don't think I've ever seen people as fearful economically as they are right now.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Charlie Rose, on PBS (1 October 2008), also reported in "Warren Buffett: I Haven't Seen As Much Economic Fear In My Adult Lifetime - Charlie Rose Interview" at CNBC (1 October 2008)
“I could end the deficit in five minutes. You just pass a law that says that any time there's a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview on CNBC (1 July 2011)
“The approach and strategies are very similar in that you gather all the information you can and then keep adding to that base of information as things develop. You do whatever the probabilities indicated based on the knowledge that you have at that time, but you are always willing to modify your behaviour or your approach as you get new information. In bridge, you behave in a way that gets the best from your partner. And in business, you behave in the way that gets the best from your managers and your employees.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Buffett on Bridge" at Buffetcup.com (2013)
“Anyone who has become rich twice is dumb. Why would you risk what you need and have for what you don’t need? If you are already rich, there is no upside to taking on a lot more risk, but there is disgrace on the downside.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks to students from Robert H Smith School of Business, 18 November 2016
“Criticize by category — praise by name.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have been on twenty public company corporate boards, not counting any Berkshire subsidiaries. ... The independent directors, in many cases, are the least independent. ... If the income you receive as a corporate director ... is an important part of your income ... how in the world is that independent?”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Can you really explain to a fish what it's like to walk on land? One day on land is worth a thousand years of talking about it, and one day running a business has exactly the same kind of value.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The Warren Buffett Way 3rd Edition (2024) by Robert G. Hagstrom, Ch. 6, p. 232
“Our performance, relatively, is likely to be better in a bear market than in a bull market ... in a year when the general market had a substantial advance, I would be well satisfied to match the advance of the averages.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Second annual letter to Limited Partners (1957)
“I make no attempt to forecast the general market — my efforts are devoted to finding undervalued securities. However, I do believe that widespread public belief in the Inevitability of profits from investments in stocks will lead to eventual trouble. Should this occur, prices, but not intrinsic values in my opinion, of even undervalued securities can be expected to be substantially affected.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2 November 1959
“Management's objective is to achieve a return on capital over the long term which averages somewhat higher than that of American industry generally — while utilizing sound accounting and debt policies.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 29 March 1974
“An irresistible footnote: in 1971, pension fund managers invested a record 122% of net funds available in equities — at full prices they couldn't buy enough of them. In 1974, after the bottom had fallen out, they committed a then record low of 21% to stocks.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1978 Chairman's Letter
“The primary test of managerial economic performance is the achievement of a high earnings rate on equity capital employed (without undue leverage, accounting gimmickry, etc.) and not the achievement of consistent gains in earnings per share. In our view, many businesses would be better understood by their shareholder owners, as well as by the general public, if managements and financial analysts modified the primary emphasis they place upon earnings per share, and upon yearly changes in that figure.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1979 Chairman's Letter
“We have tried occasionally to buy toads at bargain prices with results that have been chronicled in past reports. Clearly our kisses fell flat. We have done well with a couple of princes — but they were princes when purchased. At least our kisses didn't turn them into toads. And, finally, we have occasionally been quite successful in purchasing fractional interests in easily-identifiable princes at toad-like prices.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1981 Chairman's Letter
“It's simply to say that managers and investors alike must understand that accounting numbers is the beginning, not the end, of business valuation.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1982 Chairman's Letter
“Over the years, Charlie [Munger, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman] and I have observed many accounting-based frauds of staggering size. Few of the perpetrators have been punished; many have not even been censured. It has been far safer to steal large sums with pen than small sums with a gun.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1988 Chairman's Letter
“In fact, when we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1988 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1988 Chairman's Letter
“For example: (1) As if governed by Newton's First Law of Motion, an institution will resist any change in its current direction; (2) Just as work expands to fill available time, corporate projects or acquisitions will materialize to soak up available funds; (3) Any business craving of the leader, however foolish, will be quickly supported by detailed rate-of-return and strategic studies prepared by his troops; and (4) The behavior of peer companies, whether they are expanding, acquiring, setting executive compensation or whatever, will be mindlessly imitated.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1989 Chairman's Letter
“After 25 years of buying and supervising a great variety of businesses, Charlie and I have not learned how to solve difficult business problems. What we have learned is to avoid them. To the extent we have been successful, it is because we concentrated on identifying one-foot hurdles that we could step over because we acquired any ability to clear seven-footers.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1989 Chairman's Letter
“The most common cause of low prices is pessimism — some times pervasive, some times specific to a company or industry. We want to do business in such an environment, not because we like pessimism but because we like the prices it produces. It's optimism that is the enemy of the rational buyer.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1990 Chairman's Letter
“Our stay-put behavior reflects our view that the stock market serves as a relocation center at which money is moved from the active to the patient.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1991 Chairman's Letter
“We've long felt that the only value of stock forecasters is to make fortune tellers look good. Even now, Charlie and I continue to believe that short-term market forecasts are poison and should be kept locked up in a safe place, away from children and also from grown-ups who behave in the market like children.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1992 Chairman's Letter
“The strategy we've adopted precludes our following standard diversification dogma. Many pundits would therefore say the strategy must be riskier than that employed by more conventional investors. We disagree. We believe that a policy of portfolio concentration may well decrease risk if it raises, as it should, both the intensity with which an investor thinks about a business and the comfort-level he must feel with its economic characteristics before buying into it. In stating this opinion, we define risk, using dictionary terms, as "the possibility of loss or injury.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1993 Chairman's Letter
“Just because Charlie and I can clearly see dramatic growth ahead for an industry does not mean we can judge what its profit margins and returns on capital will be as a host of competitors battle for supremacy. At Berkshire we will stick with businesses whose profit picture for decades to come seems reasonably predictable. Even then, we will make plenty of mistakes.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1994 Chairman's Letter
“In a bull market, one must avoid the error of the preening duck that quacks boastfully after a torrential rainstorm, thinking that its paddling skills have caused it to rise in the world. A right-thinking duck would instead compare its position after the downpour to that of the other ducks on the pond.”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1997 Chairman's Letter
“Our future rates of gain will fall far short of those achieved in the past. Berkshire's capital base is now simply too large to allow us to earn truly outsized returns. If you believe otherwise, you should consider a career in sales but avoid one in mathematics (bearing in mind that there are really only three kinds of people in the world: those who can count and those who can't).”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1998 Chairman's Letter