I bought a company in the mid-90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I've made lots of dumb decisions. That's part of the game.

Problems in a company are like cockroaches in the kitchen. You will never find just one

When they get their ego involved, people do things they shouldn't do.

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

Writing checks to the IRS that include strings of zeros does not bother me ... Overall, we feel extraordinarily lucky to have been dealt a hand in life that enables us to write large checks to the government rather than one requiring the government to regularly write checks to us-say, because we are disabled or unemployed.

The dominant factors affecting control valuations are earning power (past and prospective) and asset values.

You have no ability, if you're a financial institution and you're threatened with criminal prosecution, you have no ability to negotiate.