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Warren Buffett Quotes
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Warren Edward Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. Buffett serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. He is considered by some to be one of the most successful investors in the world, and as of August 2017 is the second wealthiest person in the United States, and the fourth wealthiest in the world, with a total net worth of $81.1 billion.

Born in Omaha, Buffett developed an interest in business and investing in his youth, eventually entering the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1947 before transferring and graduating from University of Nebraska–Lincoln at the age of 19. Buffett went on to enroll and graduate from Columbia University where he learned and eventually molded his investment philosophy around a concept pioneered by Benjamin Graham–value investing. He attended New York Institute of Finance to specialize his economics background and soon after began various business partnerships, including one with Graham. After meeting Charlie Munger, Buffett created the Buffett Partnership. His firm would eventually acquire a textile manufacturing firm called Berkshire Hathaway and assume its name to create a diversified holding company.

Buffett has been the chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway since 1970, and his business exploits have had him referred to as the "Wizard", "Oracle" or "Sage" of Omaha by global media outlets. He is noted for his adherence to value investing and for his personal frugality despite his immense wealth.

Buffett is a notable philanthropist, having pledged to give away 99 percent of his fortune to philanthropic causes, primarily via the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2009, with Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, Warren founded The Giving Pledge, whereby billionaires pledge to give away at least half of their fortunes.

He is also active in contributing to political causes, having endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election; he has publicly opposed the policies, actions, and statements of the current U.S. president, Donald Trump.

✵ 30. August 1930   •   Other names Уоррен Баффет
Warren Buffett photo
Warren Buffett: 146   quotes 24   likes

Warren Buffett Quotes

“Games are won by players who focus on the playing field –- not by those whose eyes are glued to the scoreboard.”

Warren Buffett
Game

“I do know that when I am 60, I should be attempting to achieve different personal goals than those which had priority at age 20.”

Warren Buffett
Age , Personality

“Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble.”

Warren Buffett

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/09/28/25-best-warren-buffett-quotes.aspx "25 Best Warren Buffett Quotes" The Motley Fool (28 September 2014)
Quotes from the press

“I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.”

Warren Buffett
Fear

“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

As quoted in The Money Adventure (1998) by Egbert Sukop, p. 128

People

“A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.”

Warren Buffett

“I am not a businessman, I am an artist”

Warren Buffett

“Confidence comes back one at a time, but fear, is instantaneous.
With an interview with Tae Kim, CNBC, 12 Sept 2018”

Warren Buffett

Other

Fear , Confidence , Time

“Upon leaving [the derivatives business], our feelings about the business mirrored a line in a country song: "I liked you better before I got to know you so well."”

Warren Buffett

2008 Chairman's Letter
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Feeling , Business , Country

“I eat like a normal 6-year-old, but if you look at the mortality statistics, I mean, 6-year-olds don’t die very often.”

Warren Buffett

"Part 2 — Billionaire Warren Buffett says GOP health reform bills are relief for the rich" http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/part-2-billionaire-warren-buffett-says-gop-health-reform-bills-relief-rich/ PBS Newshour (27 June 2017)
Other

“Those who attended [the annual meeting] last year saw your Chairman pitch to Ernie Banks. This encounter proved to be the titanic duel that the sports world had long awaited. After the first few pitches — which were not my best, but when have I ever thrown my best? — I fired a brushback at Ernie just to let him know who was in command. Ernie charged the mound, and I charged the plate. But a clash was avoided because we became exhausted before reaching each other.”

Warren Buffett

1999 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/final1999pdf.pdf
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

World , Sport

“Capitalism is all about somebody coming and trying to take the castle. Now what you need is …. you need a castle that has some durable competitive advantage — some castle that has a moat around it.”

Warren Buffett

Rules for success

“But a pin lies in wait for every bubble. And when the two eventually meet, a new wave of investors learns some very old lessons: First, many in Wall Street — a community in which quality control is not prized — will sell investors anything they will buy. Second, speculation is most dangerous when it looks easiest.”

Warren Buffett

2000 Chairman's Letter
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Communication , Learning , Waiting

“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

1991 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1991.html
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Money , Behavior

“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

1990 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1990.html
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Optimism , Business , Time

“You couldn't advance in a finance department in this country unless you taught that the world was flat.”

Warren Buffett

As quoted in "The Heresy That Made Them Rich" by Joseph Nocera, in The New York Times (29 October 2005) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E1D71E3FF93AA15753C1A9639C8B63

World , Country

“Most companies are saddled with institutional constraints. A company's history, for example, may commit it to an industry that now offers limited opportunity. A more common problem is a shareholder constituency that pressures its manager to dance to Wall Street's tune. Many CEOs resist, but others give in and adopt operating and capital-allocation policies far different from those they would choose if left to themselves.”

Warren Buffett

2003 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2003ltr.pdf
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

History , Problem , Dance

“Ben's Mr. Market allegory may seem out-of-date in today's investment world, in which most professionals and academicians talk of efficient markets, dynamic hedging and betas. Their interest in such matters is understandable, since techniques shrouded in mystery clearly have value to the purveyor of investment advice. After all, what witch doctor has ever achieved fame and fortune by simply advising "Take two aspirins?"”

Warren Buffett

1987 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1987.html
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

World , Understanding

“Instead, we try to apply Aesop's 2,600-year-old equation to opportunities in which we have reasonable confidence as to how many birds are in the bush and when they will emerge (a formulation that my grandsons would probably update to "A girl in a convertible is worth five in the phonebook.").”

Warren Buffett

2000 Chairman's Letter
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Confidence , Girl , Bird

“It's class warfare. My class is winning, but they shouldn't be.”

Warren Buffett

Interview with Lou Dobbs http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/10/buffett/index.html on CNN (25 May 2005)
Buffet has made similar statements in other interviews:
There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.
As quoted in "In Class Warfare, Guess Which Class Is Winning" by Ben Stein, in The New York Times (26 November 2006) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/business/yourmoney/26every.html

“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

Second annual letter to Limited Partners (1957) http://www.safalniveshak.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Warren-Buffett-Berkshire-Letters-1957-2012.pdf
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

“The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money. After a heady experience of that kind, normally sensible people drift into behavior akin to that of Cinderella at the ball. They know that overstaying the festivities—that is, continuing to speculate in companies that have gigantic valuations relative to the cash they are likely to generate in the future—will eventually bring on pumpkins and mice. But they nevertheless hate to miss a single minute of what is one helluva party. Therefore, the giddy participants all plan to leave just seconds before midnight. There's a problem, though: They are dancing in a room in which the clocks have no hands.”

Warren Buffett

2000 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2000.html
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Money , Hate , People , Behavior

“Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius. But Sir Isaac's talents didn't extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, "I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men." If he had not been traumatized by this loss, Sir Isaac might well have gone on to discover the Fourth Law of Motion: For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases.”

Warren Buffett

2005 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2005.html
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Men , Law , Star , Loss

“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

1981 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1981.html
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Kiss , Success , Past

“In fact, when we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.”

Warren Buffett

1988 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1988.html
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Business

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

Warren Buffett

1998 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, quoted in Wait: The Art and Science of Delay (2012) by Frank Partnoy, p. 177

Waiting

“Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies. And if they insist on trying to time their participation in equities, they should try to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful.”

Warren Buffett

2004 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2004.html
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Fear , Time

“We will reject interesting opportunities rather than over-leverage our balance sheet.”

Warren Buffett

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: An Owner's Manual (1999)
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

“Putting people into homes, though a desirable goal, shouldn’t be our country’s primary objective. Keeping them in their homes should be the ambition.”

Warren Buffett

2008 Chairman's Letter
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

People , Home , Country

“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

In a panel discussion after the premier of the 2008 documentary I.O.U.S.A.. Panel at the Premier, 0:05:42ff., DVD extras, I.O.U.S.A. (2008)

Business

“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

1998 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, as quoted in The Essays of Warren Buffett : Lessons for Corporate America (1998), p. 92

“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

1989 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1989.html
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Law , Behavior , Business , Support

“Intrinsic value can be defined simply: It is the discounted value of the cash that can be taken out of a business during its remaining life. The calculation of intrinsic value, though, is not so simple. As our definition suggests, intrinsic value is an estimate rather than a precise figure, and it is additionally an estimate that must be changed if interest rates move or forecasts of future cash flows are revised.”

Warren Buffett

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: An Owner's Manual http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/owners.html (1999)
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Life , Business , Change , Future

“Of course, Charlie and I can identify only a few Inevitables, even after a lifetime of looking for them. Leadership alone provides no certainties: Witness the shocks some years back at General Motors, IBM and Sears, all of which had enjoyed long periods of seeming invincibility. Though some industries or lines of business exhibit characteristics that endow leaders with virtually insurmountable advantages, and that tend to establish Survival of the Fattest as almost a natural law, most do not. Thus, for every Inevitable, there are dozens of Impostors, companies now riding high but vulnerable to competitive attacks.”

Warren Buffett

1996 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1996.html
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Law , Business , Nature

“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

http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_27/b3636006.htm "Homespun Wisdom from the 'Oracle of Omaha'" Businessweek (5 July 1999)
Quotes from the press

“I like to study failure, actually. My partner says, "I want to know where I'll die so I'll never go there." We want to see what has caused businesses to go bad. The biggest thing that kills them is complacency…. The danger would always be that you rest on your laurels.”

Warren Buffett

Rules for success

Failure , Business , Study

“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

1988 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1988.html
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Fraud

“What counts for most people in investing is not how much they know, but rather how realistically they define what they don't know.”

Warren Buffett

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-genius-of-warren-buffett-in-23-quotes-2015-08-19 "The genius of Warren Buffett in 23 quotes" MarketWatch (19 August 2015)
Quotes from the press

People

“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

1978 Chairman's Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1978.html
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

“We're going to move a lot of crude (oil) in this country, and we have to learn how to do it very safely.”

Warren Buffett

http://www.investing.com/news/economy-news/buffett:-moving-oil-by-rail-safely-is-a-major-industry-concern-279336 "Buffett: Moving Oil By Rail Safely Is A Major Industry Concern" Investing.com (24 April 2014)
Quotes from the press

Learning , Country

“But now for the final exam: If you expect to be a net saver during the next five years, should you hope for a higher or lower stock market during that period? Many investors get this one wrong. Even though they are going to be net buyers of stocks for many years to come, they are elated when stock prices rise and depressed when they fall. In effect, they rejoice because prices have risen for the "hamburgers" they will soon be buying. This reaction makes no sense. 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.”

Warren Buffett

1997 Chairman's Letter
Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

Hope , Sense , Future , Happiness

“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

Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting (2004), as quoted at The Buffett http://www.thebuffett.com/quotes.html

Money , People , Time