You shouldn't own common stocks if a 50 per cent decrease in their value in a short period of time would cause you acute distress.

I’ve never believed in risking what my family and friends have and need in order to pursue what they don’t have and don’t need.

I've read about all the sales today. If you're an auto dealer, you're feeling it. If you're a furniture retailer like we are, you're feeling it. If you're a jewelry retailer, you're feeling it. I know some of these businesses because we're in them. Yeah, it's being felt, but it will be felt big time more if we don't do something about it, what's going on.

In investing, just as in baseball, to put runs on the scoreboard, one must watch the playing field, not the scoreboard.

As I have mentioned before, we cannot make the same sort of money out of permanent ownership of controlled businesses that can be made from buying and reselling such businesses, or from skilled investment in marketable securities. Nevertheless, they offer a pleasant long term form of activity (when conducted in conjunction with high grade, able people) at satisfactory rates of return.

I knew a lot about what I did when I was 20. I had read a lot, and I aspired to learn everything I could about the subject.

Ignore the stock market, ignore the economy, and buy a business you understand.