The ethos of not fooling yourself is one of the best you could possibly have. It's powerful because it's so rare.

We don't have an isolated group [of senior managers] surrounded by servants. Berkshire's headquarters is a tiny little suite. We just came back from Berkshire's board meeting; it had moved up to the board room of the Kiewit company and [it was so large and luxurious that] I felt uncomfortable.

I did not succeed in life by intelligence. I succeeded because I have a long attention span.

A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom As It Relates To Investment Management & Business

Acquire worldly wisdom and adjust your behavior accordingly. If your new behavior gives you a little temporary unpopularity with your peer group then to hell with them.

Our approach has worked for us. Look at the fun we, our managers, and our shareholders are having. More people should copy us. It's not difficult, but it looks difficult because it's unconventional - it isn't the way things are normally done. We have low overhead, don't have quarterly goals and budgets or a standard personnel system, and our investing is much more concentrated than average. It's simple and common sense.

At Berkshire Hathaway we do not like to compete against Chinese manufacturers.