We've had public companies in the past in that business and they bleed. We've got a lot more blood than they do.

We try to buy businesses with good-to-superb underlying economics run by honest and able people and buy them at sensible prices. That's all I'm trying to do.

Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good results.

Inactivity strikes us as intelligent behavior.

I learned to go into business only with people whom I like, trust, and admire.

More investment sins are probably committed by otherwise quite intelligent people because of "tax considerations" than from any other cause. One of my friends-a noted West Coast philosopher-maintains that a majority of life's errors are caused by forgetting what one is really trying to do. This is certainly the case when an emotionally supercharged element like taxes enters the picture (I have another friend-a noted East Coast philosopher who says it isn't the lack of representation he minds-it's the taxation).

You need a lot of curiosity for a long, long time.