If we have a strength, it is in recognizing when we are operating well within our circle of competence and when we are approaching the perimeter.

Investors... can't pick stocks that are better than average. Stocks are a good thing to own over time. There's only two things you can do wrong: You can buy the wrong ones, and you can buy or sell them at the wrong time. And the truth is you never need to sell them.

The greatest investment a young person can make is in their own education, in their own mind. Because money comes and goes. Relationships come and go. But what you learn once stays with you forever.

I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business.

It’s not that I want money. It’s the fun of making money and watching it grow.

None of this means, however, that a business or stock is an intelligent purchase simply because it is unpopular; a contrarian approach is just as foolish as a follow-the-crowd strategy. What's required is thinking rather than polling. Unfortunately, Bertrand Russell's observation about life in general applies with unusual force in the financial world: "Most men would rather die than think. Many do."

I think I could make you fifty percent a year on one million dollars. No, I know I could. I guarantee that.