The name of the game is continuing to learn. Even if you're very well trained and have some natural aptitude, you still need to keep learning.

Berkshireis not as good as it was in terms of percentage compounding [going forward], but it's still a hell of a business.

The hedge fund known as "Long Term Capital Management" collapsed last fall through overconfidence in its highly leveraged methods, despite I.Q.'s of its principals that must have averaged 160. Smart people aren't exempt from professional disasters from overconfidence. Often, they just run aground in the more difficult voyages they choose, relying on their self-appraisals that they have superior talents and methods.

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

The old culture had come out of poverty, out of English customs.

The Internet bubble circa 2000 is the most extreme in modern capitalism. In the 1930s, we had the worst depression in 600 years. Today is almost as extreme in the opposite way.

There is bound to be a regression toward the mean.