Our investments continue to be few in number and simple in concept: The truly big investment idea can usually be explained in a short paragraph. We like a business with enduring competitive advantages that is run by able and owner-oriented people. When these attributes exist, and when we can make purchases at sensible prices, it is hard to go wrong (a challenge we periodically manage to overcome).

With each investment you make, you should have the courage and the conviction to place at least ten per cent of your net worth in that stock

If you understood a business perfectly and the future of the business, you need very little in the way of a margin of safety.

Never get too hung up on mistakes.

The Noah rule: Predicting rain doesn't count; building arks does.

We rarely use much debt and, when we do, we attempt to structure it on a long-term fixed rate basis. We will reject interesting opportunities rather than over-leverage our balance sheet. This conservatism has penalized our results but it is the only behavior that leaves us comfortable, considering our fiduciary obligations to policyholders, depositors, lenders and the many equity holders who have committed unusually large portions of their net worth to our care.

Resolution Trust Company was set up to liquidate a bunch of assets that the government had inherited because the savings and loans went broke.