Warren Buffett: Quotes about people

Warren Buffett is American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. Explore interesting quotes on people.
Warren Buffett: 292 quotes25 likes

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

Warren Buffett

“The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say “no” to almost everything.”

Warren Buffett

Variant: The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.

“You're dealing with a lot of silly people in the marketplace”

Warren Buffett

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; Buffet eventually became a major investor in Coca-Cola.
Context: 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.

“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

“You’ve gotta keep control of your time, and you can’t unless you say no. You can’t let people set your agenda in life.”

Warren Buffett

“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

“[Gold] gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”

Warren Buffett

“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

“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&#x27;s Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2000.html <br class="br">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)

“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

“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

“Success in investing doesn't correlate with I. Q. once you're above the level of 25. 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

As quoted in Homespun Wisdom from the &quot;Oracle of Omaha&quot; by Amy Stone in BusinessWeek (5 June 1999) http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_27/b3636006.htm

“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

1998 Chairman&#x27;s Letter http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1998pdf.pdf <br class="br">Letters to Shareholders (1957 - 2012)

“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

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/239763 "10 Brilliant Quotes From Warren Buffett, America's Second-Richest Person " entrepreneur.com (13 November 2014)
Quotes from the press

“People will always try to stop you doing the right thing if it is unconventional.”

Warren Buffett

As quoted in &quot;My $650,100 Lunch with Warren Buffett&quot; by Guy Spier, in TIME (30 June 2008) http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1819293,00.html

“More than 99% of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or at death. Measured by dollars, this commitment is large. In a comparative sense, though, many individuals give more to others every day.
Millions of people who regularly contribute to churches, schools, and other organizations thereby relinquish the use of funds that would otherwise benefit their own families. The dollars these people drop into a collection plate or give to United Way mean forgone movies, dinners out, or other personal pleasures. In contrast, my family and I will give up nothing we need or want by fulfilling this 99% pledge.
Moreover, this pledge does not leave me contributing the most precious asset, which is time. Many people, including — I’m proud to say — my three children, give extensively of their own time and talents to help others. Gifts of this kind often prove far more valuable than money.”

Warren Buffett

&quot; My Philanthropic Pledge http://givingpledge.org/pdf/letters/Buffett_Letter.pdf&quot; at The Giving Pledge (2010)