A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.

So some guy may know how to make money in cocoa beans, but I don't so I just let him have that. But it's got to be something I understand. It's got to be a business with fundamentally good economics. It's got to be a management that I like and trust and admire. And it's got to be a price that makes sense.

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.

You don't need to have extraordinary effort to achieve extraordinary results. You just need to do the ordinary, everyday things exceptionally well.

Would your reply possibly be this? Well, it all depends on what my tax rate will be on the gain you're saying we're going to make. If the taxes are too high, I would rather leave the money in my savings account, earning a quarter of 1 percent. Only in Grover Norquist's imagination does such a response exist.

Unless your answers are clearly better, copy the answers of your betters.

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