Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.

The banking business is no favorite of ours. When assets are twenty times equity - a common ratio in this industry - mistakes that involve only a small portion of assets can destroy a major portion of equity. And mistakes have been the rule rather than the exception at many major banks.

Buy companies with strong histories of profitability and with a dominant business franchise.

If you can't read the scoreboard. You don't know the score. If you don't know the score, you can't tell the winners from the losers.

Charlie and I have a number of filters that things have to get through before we'll think about them.

If you want your business to survive for 100 years, you've got to make it through every single day for 100 years. It's not enough to do it 99.9% of the time.

It's good to learn from your mistakes. It's better to learn from other people's mistakes.