I think the reason why we got into such idiocy in investment management is best illustrated by a story that I tell about the guy who sold fishing tackle. I asked him, "My God, they're purple and green. Do fish really take these lures?" And he said, "Mister, I don't sell to fish." Investment managers are in the position of that fishing tackle salesman.

You must force yourself to consider opposing arguments. Especially when they challenge your best loved ideas.

Berkshireis in the business of making easy predictions If a deal looks too hard, the partners simply shelve it.

I regard it as very unfair, but capitalism without failure is like religion without hell.

In the LBO field there is a buried "covariance" with marketable equities, toward disaster in generally bad business conditions, and competition is now extremely intense.

I don't spend much time regretting the past, once I've taken my lesson from it. I don't dwell on it.

It would be one of the most irritating experiences in the world to do a lot of work to uncover a fraud and then at have it go from X to 3X and at h the crooks happily partying with your money while you're meeting margin calls. Why would you want to go within hailing distance of that?