Don't confuse correlation and causation. Almost all great records eventually dwindle.

Look at those hedge funds - you think they can wait? They don't know how to wait! I have sat for years at a time with $10 to $12 million in treasuries or municipals, just waiting, waiting...As Jesse Livermore said, 'The big money is not in the buying and selling...but in the waiting.'

Berkshire's whole record has been achieved without paying one ounce of attention to the efficient market theory in its hard form. And not one ounce of attention to the descendants of that idea, which came out of academic economics and went into corporate finance and morphed into such obscenities as the capital asset pricing model, which we also paid no attention to. I think you'd have to believe in the tooth fairy to believe that you could easily outperform the market by seven-percentage points per annum just by investing in high volatility stocks.

The game of life is the game of everlasting learning. At least it is if you want to win.

Is there such thing as a cheerful pessimist? That's what I am.

A board member should be perfectly willing to leave at any time and willing to make the tough calls.

Being short and seeing a promoter take the stock up is very irritating. It's not worth it to have that much irritation in your life.