Our future rates of gain will fall far short of those achieved in the past. Berkshire's capital base is now simply too large to allow us to earn truly outsized returns. If you believe otherwise, you should consider a career in sales but avoid one in mathematics.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.

Other guys read Playboy. I read annual reports.

I think that trying to invest through 535 people is a tough job, you know, and so I would give more latitude.

You’ve gotta keep control of your time, and you can’t unless you say no. You can’t let people set your agenda in life.

You've got the right - you've got a wonderful person with Sheila Bair, most of the viewers have never heard of Sheila Bair. [She] has taken eight percent of the deposits in the United States and seamlessly moved those over to sound institutions which in turn have gotten more capital, ended up, it's been a magnificent job.She'll never get a golden parachute or any severance pay or anything. She's done a great job. We've got some great public servants. We have I think the right people in there to get the job done, and then they need more tools.

Investing in a market where people believe in efficiency is like playing bridge with someone who has been told it doesn't do any good to look at the cards.