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

Cicero's words also increased my personal satisfaction by supporting my long-standing rejection of a conventional point of view.

'F.A.S.B' ... 'Financial Accounts Still Bogus'.

In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time - none, zero. You'd be amazed at how much Warren reads - at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out.

Over the long term, it's hard for a stock to earn a much better return that the business which underlies it earns. If the business earns six percent on capital over forty years and you hold it for that forty years, you're not going to make much different than a six percent return - even if you originally buy it at a huge discount. Conversely, if a business earns eighteen percent on capital over twenty or thirty years, even if you pay an expensive looking price, you'll end up with one hell of a result.

We don't have any miraculous way of avoiding taxes at Wesco and Berkshire.

You want to deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end.