We get these questions a lot from the enterprising young. It's a very intelligent question: You look at some old guy who's rich and you ask, 'How can I become like you, except faster?'

It takes almost no capital to open a new See's candy store. We're drowning in capital of our own that has almost no cost. It would be crazy to franchise stores like some capital-starved pancake house. We like owning our own stores as a matter of quality control.

You've got to have models in your head and you've got to array you experience - both vicarious and direct - onto this latticework of mental models.

I don't want to sell credit to people who are going to hurt themselves with it. You should only sell products that are good for the people who use them. Some disagree with this, but I know I'm right. That is to say, you're talking to a Republican who admires Elizabeth Warren.

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

Whenever you think something or some person is ruining your life, it's you. A victimization mentality is so debilitating.

Strategic plans cause more dumb decisions than anything else in America.